


Under Stars

by wxandwaves



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 01:01:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20219197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wxandwaves/pseuds/wxandwaves
Summary: Sara Ryder woke up on the wrong side of the cryopod shortly after Scott returned from Habitat-7 as the new Pathfinder. She's been in something of a bad mood ever since. Being dragged to a radioactive desert and an ice planet immediately afterward did not help things, or further endear Scott to her. Now they find themselves on Kadara after Scott received marching orders from the Resistance, and Sara has a bad feeling about this.





	1. A More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

**Author's Note:**

> I always felt Andromeda wasted the other twin and there was a much more interested dynamic hidden in there somewhere. That, and it always seemed like establishing outposts would require way more work than the game made it seem.

Sara Ryder was annoyed as she stood on the bridge of the _Tempest_ overlooking Kadara Port. She’d woken up on the _Hyperion_ to the news that the entire Andromeda Initiative had gone to shit, the “Golden Worlds” were a bust, and her twin was the human pathfinder because, surprise, surprise, her father had died the first day they’d arrived in the Heleus Cluster. In short, Sara Ryder had woken up on the wrong side of the cryopod, and things had not improved from there. It wasn’t bad enough that everyone and their uncle seemed to be invested in making a bad situation worse, but now they were on Andromeda’s answer to Mos Eisley Space Port from _Star Wars_, those old twentieth century vids, looking for some angaran traitor in some elaborate attempt to gain the locals’ trust and fix the aforementioned “Golden Worlds”. Even that might not have annoyed her, considering that the absolute nightmare the angara had been facing with the kett. No, the primary source of her present irritation was firmly on her brother’s shoulders. Mr. Bigshot Pathfinder had announced to her that he needed to track down supplies for the _Tempest_ with Suvi and Gil, thus sticking her with the _joyous _job of meeting the angaran contact. Alone. In Mos Eisley, err, Kadara Port.

Sara glared out the windshield as Scott strolled onto the bridge and stood with his arm propped up on the railing next to the galaxy map, shooting her a laidback smile. “Ready to head out?”

“Remind me why it is that you’re shirking your duties onto me?” replied Sara coolly.

The twins shared many of their features, but Scott had always looked more like their mother and Sara had always looked more like their father. Both were technically biotic, though only Sara used hers. Scott preferred to focus on his tech skills and combat prowess, whereas Sara had always been more cerebral, focusing strictly on her biotics and studies. It was an odd realization that they had taken so much after their parents, but one that reached all the way to their personalities. Scott had the dark hair, large nose, and easy grace of their mother, while Sara had the sandy brown hair and objective distance of their father. Both had managed to inherit Alec Ryder’s lilac eyes, though Sara was the only one who could properly emulate Alec’s particularly lethal glare, and it was that particular glare that Sara was fixing Scott with that very moment.

Scott was unfazed by that glare, having spent most, if not all, of his life on the receiving end of it on multiple fronts. “Sara, I’m not trying to pawn this off on you, but we need to get a better lay of the land and see what’s really going on here. All the intel we have on Kadara suggests that it’s an exile’s paradise swarming with criminals and murderers. While you handle the strait-laced, Initiative gig, I’m going to see what I can find in the shadows. You and I both know that you couldn’t break a rule if you tried and absolutely everything about you screams Initiative. I might be the Pathfinder with SAM in my head, but you’re the one who looks the part.”

“Exactly. _You _are the Pathfinder,” said Sara irritably.

“It’s not like I wanted this, Sara,” snapped Scott, his glare just as flinty. “But since you wanted to come along, you’re just going to have to deal with me at the moment and the way I run things. And that means that we’re going to play to everyone’s strengths. You’re so uptight that _Lexi _thinks you should relax, so yes, I’m sending you to meet the contact because of everyone on this ship, you are quite possibly the least likely to blend in on this planet.”

“So, your answer is to send your sister _by herself _to a skeevy bar on a crime-infested hellhole?” said Sara.

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Since when can the Queen of the Biotics not defend herself?”

Sara looked at him like he was an idiot. “What in the world does Cora see in you?”

“Excuse you, look at me; I’m a specimen,” said Scott.

Sara rolled her eyes in disgust before stalking off the bridge like a storm cloud on the warpath. She needed to change before heading down to the surface. She sat on her bunk, surveying her outfit options. While BDUs were definitely comfortable, it also seemed like a really good way to get herself shot on site the moment she stepped off the ship. Still, she didn’t want to look like a curmudgeon. She _refused _to look like a curmudgeon. And so, she chose a pair of white jeans, tall grey boots, a grey leather jacket, a dark purple scarf, and an even darker purple shirt. She twisted her hair into a quick bun so that it was both out of her way and couldn’t be grabbed by someone in the off chance that she was attacked.

Sara met Vetra as she headed for the airlock.

“Is that your version of casual?” asked Vetra in amusement.

Sara glanced down at her outfit and then frowned at the turian. “What’s wrong with my outfit?”

“Only that you couldn’t look anymore squeaky clean and government issued if you tried,” said Vetra.

Sara sighed heavily, but knew it was far too late to go back and change. “Great.”

“You’ll be fine, Ryder. It suits you, even if you could stand to loosen up a bit,” said Vetra. Sara was ready to be offended before Vetra continued. “You’re always so buttoned up and on guard. You need to relax and stop taking everything so seriously. There’s enough of that in the air as it is with the kett and the Nexus. Stress can be contagious, and you practically radiate it.”

Sara grumbled. “You sound just like Scott.”

“Just try and enjoy yourself. You’re on a completely new alien world, after all,” said Vetra as the airlock slid open and they walked out onto the platform.

As they made their way to the docks with a proper view of Kadara down below and off to the distance, Sara had to admit that it was rather beautiful. Deadly, toxic, and terrifying, but also beautiful. She had to tear herself away from the scenery, lest she spend all day staring off into the distance like a heroine in a poorly written vid. She had a job to do, and admiring the scenery was most decidedly not it.

She and Vetra headed from the docks to the marketplace and almost immediately found a group of thugs beating up a guy, yelling something about paying for protection. The entire scene was illuminated by the glow of neon lights and the entire market seemed to have a certain amount of dust, grime, and blood on it in one form or another.

“‘You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy’,” quoted Sara as she gazed around.

“Clearly you never went to Omega back in the Milky Way,” chuckled Vetra.

“It’s a quote from an old earth vid when two of the main characters arrive in a space port inhabited chiefly by criminals, thugs, and smugglers. Oddly, they were also heading to a skeevy bar, although they were trying to find themselves a pilot, who ended up being a smuggler, who ended up falling in love with a princess, but that’s not important at the moment,” explained Sara.

“Eh, close enough,” said Vetra. With that, she said her goodbyes to Sara and took her leave to go do whatever turian smugglers turned Initiative weapons specialists did on Kadara.

Sara checked her omni-tool for the location of this skeevy bar before making her way across the marketplace towards a place called Kralla’s Song. From what she had seen of Kadara so far, it didn’t _seem _as bad as it could be. Actually, it reminded her of some of the lower wards on the Citadel back home in the Milky Way.

_This is home now_, she tried to remind herself. There was no going back to the Milky Way now. Like it or not, they were stuck in Andromeda, and now it was time to make the best of it.

Kralla’s Song was slightly less skeevy of a bar than she had thought it would be. It even had a patio that overlooked the valley below, which Sara took some comfort in. Shitty bars didn’t usually have patios, and the lack of asari dancers was promising. Still, she was nervous. Espionage was not her strong suit, nor would it ever be, so she approached the bar and waited her turn for the bartender to come over.

“What do you want?” asked the asari bluntly.

Sara didn’t mind her rudeness. In fact, she usually preferred the direct approach above skirting the issue. “Whiskey neat.”

“That’s the only way we serve it,” said the asari as she poured the drink and slid it over to Sara, who transferred the credits and leaned on the bar.

Sara was antsy, and the alcohol didn’t really do much to calm her nerves, what with her biotics and all. She looked up every time the main door slid open, wondering if that was her contact. But she hadn’t seen any angara other than the group who had briefly stopped by and left, so she was left alone to nurse her drink and wait.

_Is this what it’s like to be stood up?_ Sara wondered as she finished her drink. If it was, it certainly lived up to the hype, and she wasn’t even romantically involved with whoever this was.

“You look like you’re waiting for someone,” purred a smooth voice as its owner appeared at her elbow to lean on the bar beside her. He was tall and all lean muscle, with a bronze complexion, whiskey colored eyes, and smooth black hair. He fixed her with a sly smile and practically oozed roguish confidence and mischief.

Sara had absolutely no idea what to make of this man. There was no question that he was painfully handsome. And his voice reminded Sara of the hot chocolate her mother used to make with cinnamon, hot and smooth. Yes, absolutely everything about this man from his smile, to his looks, to his voice was devastatingly attractive. Right up until the fact that he was, undoubtedly, a criminal. And she couldn’t really abide criminals.

“Not for you, I’m afraid,” said Sara with a polite smile as the man slid a new glass of whiskey her way and took a sip of his own.

He set down his drink and raised an eyebrow, not even remotely deterred. “No? Not waiting for someone named Shena, then?”

Sara didn’t have much of a poker face. “What? But you’re…” She recovered herself quickly. “My apologies, I was expecting someone more…angaran.”

He fixed her with a devastating smile and chuckled lightly. He delighted in her expression. “The angara pay me for information, among other things. But please, I hate code names, call me Reyes. Reyes Vidal.”

She shook the hand he extended to her. “Sara Ryder. So, you’re a smuggler, then?”

“Among other things,” said Reyes as he led her over to the patio, away from prying eyes and idle ears. “Your man—Vehn Terev—was arrested by Sloane Kelly, leader of the Outcasts. Word spread about what he did to Moshae Sjefa. The people are calling for his execution and Sloane…she’s a woman of the people.”

“Dress it up however you want; she’s a criminal,” said Sara distastefully.

“You work for the Initiative, yes? Sloane was part of the uprising on the Nexus. I doubt she’ll give Vehn up easily,” said Reyes.

“Well, tough. I’m taking him—with or without her permission,” said Sara matter-of-factly.

Reyes had a feeling that she meant that. He chuckled, a deep, seductive sound that awakened something primal deep down within Sara. “We’re going to be friends, you and I.”

Sara silently cursed Scott for sending her on this damn mission. No handsome smugglers would have flirted with _him_, that’s for sure. Or maybe they would have. And Scott would have squirmed. Yet another reason to have sent Scott _in the first place_.

He kept talking. “There might be another way to get to Vehn. You work Sloane. I’ll talk to the Resistance.” 

“Sounds like a plan, though I have a feeling that this Sloane woman and I will not see eye to eye,” said Sara.

Reyes was entirely relaxed and utterly immune to Sara’s discomfort and chagrin. “I must say, you were waiting for an angaran, and I was expecting a different Ryder.” He glanced over to her and noticed her eye roll and tiny frown. He found the tiny frown adorable.

“Yes, well, my brother was otherwise detained and sent me in his stead to negotiate. Seems to think that of the two of us, everything about me practically screams ‘uptight Andromeda Initiative’, and I would otherwise in no way be able to blend in on Kadara,” said Sara honestly.

Reyes found her candor something akin to a breath of fresh air on Kadara. She was an open book with no secrets and no reason to hide who or what she was. She was, in many ways, his antithesis, and for some reason, Reyes felt drawn to that. And her lovely lilac eyes.

“Yes, well, perhaps that is for the best, no? I am not complaining,” said Reyes as he fixed her with another charming smile.

Sara wondered idly if this man had any other mode beyond ‘charming’ or if this really was just how he operated.

“Still, I wonder that the Great Pathfinder would allow his sister to wander around Kadara unaccompanied and unarmed,” said Reyes.

Sara used her biotics to steal his whiskey and take a sip, batting her eyelashes prettily at him. “Who says I’m unarmed?”

This may have had something to do with the amount of alcohol she had consumed. Or a deep seeded need to get revenge. If he was going to flirt shamelessly, two could play this game.

Reyes was not immune to her charm.

They began ironing out specifics and details, and Sara felt comfortable for the first time since arriving on Kadara. Logistics and details were more familiar. There was order to that and to having a plan. Sara _liked _having a plan. Reyes, for his part, found himself being drawn further in by the lilac-eyed beauty before him. There was a certain integrity to her which was practically nonexistent on Kadara. This was not a woman who had seen the worst of humanity and done nearly as bad. This was not a woman who saw opportunities instead of faces and who clawed her way to the top by stepping over the corpses of her enemies, like so many others on Kadara. No, this was a woman who was ruthlessly efficient, organized, and strait-laced. This was a woman who probably couldn’t even cheat at cards, never mind in life, and who really did have just the most _gorgeous _eyes he’d ever seen. She was like sunshine after a fourteen-month long rainstorm, and Reyes found himself utterly captivated by her, even as every instinct he had told him that she was the bad idea to end all bad ideas.

Before she could try and gleam more information out of him or get the last word in, Reyes decided that he needed to leave, if only so he didn’t properly drown in those lilac pools. He nodded his goodbye and turned to leave.

He only made it about ten feet before she called his name. He liked the way his name sounded on her lips, which he hated himself for.

“How will I contact you if and when this all goes south?” she asked, and he could see the thinly veiled panic of ‘this is not my area of expertise’.

Rather than give her a proper answer, he just flashed her a smile and winked before walking away.

Sara really was blushing this time as she glared in outrage at his back. The nerve! What kind of contact doesn’t give you a method of _contact_, hmm?

Umi, the bartender, chose that moment to reappear at the counter and call to her. “Hey, you going to pay for those drinks?”

Sara glanced between the asari and the door where Reyes had just disappeared, utterly furious. “He left me with the _tab_?”

“Yep, so pay up, princess,” said the bartender.

Sara grumbled to herself as she transferred the funds, determined to get her revenge. Or get her money back. Or make him buy the next round.

_There should not be a next round with a smuggler_, Sara’s good sense told her. _Do not give in to your baser urges. You are better than this_.

Sara was grumpy as she exited the darkness of Kralla’s Song for the marketplace. She squinted into the sunlight as a familiar figure pushed off the wall and fell easily into step with her.

“How’d your meeting go?” asked Scott.

She glared accusingly at her twin. “You left me with Andromeda’s Han Solo, I hope you realize, and_ he_ left me with the bar tab.”

The bar tab annoyed her even more than the other part.

Scott seemed to find that amusing. “So, he wasn’t blue and all _vive la résistance_?”

“_No_, he was most assuredly not. Try tan and a smuggler. And now you have to go meet with someone named Sloane Kelly who apparently runs Kadara. She’s the one who’s got our angaran friend under lock and key,” said Sara reproachfully.

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. I did some digging while you were flirting with Han Solo,” began Scott. He too had been subjected to numerous _Star Wars _marathons in their youth.

“I was not flirting,” interjected Sara.

“It looks like there are two big shots vying for power here. You’ve got Sloane Kelly, former head of security on the Nexus, who runs the Outcasts and some guy named the Charlatan who runs the Collective. From the sound of things, the only reason this Sloane chick is in power is because she and her crew killed a bunch of kett that were here. The Collective are trying to seize power, so the Outlaws are squeezing a bit tighter to maintain their hold on the port,” explained Scott.

“Yes, I already had that lecture once today thanks,” said Sara impatiently.

“Han Solo gave you the rundown, I take it?” said Scott.

“When I asked who Sloane Kelly was, yes, he explained the gist of things. And speaking of Sloane Kelly, you have a meeting with her,” said Sara.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” said Scott.

“Obviously, it’s not a _good _idea, but if you want the Resistance on your side and to help the Moshae, then you sure as shit are going to need to get that traitor that the Resistance wants so badly,” said Sara.

“I meant, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for me _personally _to meet her,” said Scott.

“You have _got _to be fucking kidding me. I am not the Pathfinder. I do not have the authority. This woman is going to laugh in my face and then kick me out of her office or wherever she is,” said Sara.

“You’re a woman in a position of authority. She’ll respect that,” shrugged Scott.

Sara crossed her arms and fixed him with a look of contempt. “These people are all about leverage, information, and power, Scott. They want the _Pathfinder_, not his sister.”

“But you’re the charming one,” said Scott.

Sara looked at him. They both knew this was a lie.

“You’re my representative here. You talk to Sloane, and report back whatever progress you have,” said Scott as he checked his omni-tool. “Look, Sara, I have to go take a call, but let me know how the meeting goes.”

With that, he ran off, leaving Sara standing in the crowded marketplace feeling rather put upon. Still, someone was going to have to do the dirty work around here, and no one had ever accused her of shrinking in the face of adversity, even if that adversity presented itself as a port full of shady exiles, thieves, and murderers.

The Outcast Headquarters was located on the edge of the marketplace in a massive blocky structure guarded by a group of krogans who were armed to the teeth.

“Sara Ryder of the Pathfinder Team here to see Sloane Kelly,” announced Sara in her most authoritative voice, back ramrod straight and channeling as much of her father as she could manage.

One of the krogans called into a comm asking about her, and there was a short conversation that seemed to work in her favor. The doors slid open to reveal two more krogans who escorted her inside as if she were a criminal, assault rifles pointed at the ready. They walked her down a dingy metal hallway, took a right down another dingy metal hallway, and then headed through a massive door guarded by yet another set of krogan.

Inside was something akin to a throne room. It was a massive hexagonal room with the far wall consisting mostly of a huge set of windows that overlooked the wilds of Kadara below. A central walkway led to what genuinely was a throne where a woman lounged regally while attending to a holographic screen before her. A grumpy looking turian stood to the right of her throne, clearly her right-hand man.

Sloane Kelly, the woman on the throne, was about what Sara had expected. She had a deep tan, mismatched blue and brown eyes, and head mostly shaved save for a few cornrows on the top of her head. She wore a mix of what Sara could only describe as space pirate attire, metal armor, and an angaran inspired scarf/neck brace. She was lounging on the throne as if she were the queen of the entire Andromeda Galaxy, never mind Kadara, and Sara instantly disliked her.

The krogan behind her shoved Sara forward into the room and Sara shot him a reproachful glare before straightening her jacket and stepping forward.

Sloane didn’t seem to care, just kept talking over comms to someone in a smooth British accent. “Focus defenses here and here. The kett have been quiet for too long.” Having issued the order, and seeing the newcomer, Sloane sat up somewhat and dismissed the screen before her. She regarded Sara as one might a bit of trash that blew in off the street. “What?”

Sara was unimpressed and her sarcasm won over her professionalism. “That’s quite the throne. Should I bow? Kiss your ring?”

The instant hatred was mutual.

“Very funny,” scoffed Sloane as she leaned back. “So, I understand that you’re with the Pathfinder team. What brings a Pathfinder to our humble port?”

Sara wanted to get straight to the point. “Vehn Terev. Name ring any bells?”

“What’s he to you? And don’t lie to me,” said Sloane.

Sara wasn’t much for lying as a general rule, nor did she particularly see a reason to in this instance. “We need him so that we can infiltrate a kett flagship. You obviously have no love for the kett, so we’re actually doing you a favor.”

“Kadara is an angaran port. They want Vehn dead, and I want to keep them happy,” said Sloane.

“This is slightly bigger than local politics,” said Sara.

Sloane Kelly leaned forward. “You don’t need Vehn, you need his intel. Talk to him before I put his head on a spike.”

Sara didn’t like this. They had been sent to retrieve the angaran, not send him to die, and she wasn’t particularly in the mood to compromise. “Vehn should be judged by the Resistance, not you.”

“I don’t have time for a morality debate. Dismissed,” said Sloane flippantly as she waved Sara away.

Sara bowed dramatically. “Your Majesty.” She stalked out of the base, still seething, and returned to the marketplace.

Cora was at a shop looking at biotic amps and waved Sara over.

“How’d your meetings go?” asked Cora.

Sara’s scowl said more than words. “First it was the smooth-talking contact, then it was this Sloane Kelly woman who acts like she owns the place.”

“Sounds fun,” said Cora.

“She had a throne, Cora. An actual, real life throne,” said Sara.

“Are you surprised?” said Cora.

“And of course, she’s blocking our attempt to retrieve that angaran, and to make matters worse, I have absolutely no way of contacting our contact because that shady, flirty smuggler wouldn’t give me any information,” complained Sara.

“Flirty, huh?” said Cora.

“He practically oozed charm. Oh, Cora, he was plenty easy on the eyes and his voice was to die for, but that is _so _beside the point. He left me with the bar tab, Cora. And I just _know _that he knew Sloane Kelly would reject me right off,” said Sara.

“Sounds like you’ve had quite the day. Where’d Scott run off to?” said Cora.

“Important Pathfinder business, or something. I don’t know. He stuck me with sorting out this mess, and I am _not _happy about it,” said Sara.

“I gathered,” said Cora.

Sara deflated significantly, her anger running out of steam. “I just don’t understand why he wants _me _to do it. It’s not as if I have the same authority or sway that he does. I know he said that it was because I’m so uptight that I stick out her like a sore thumb, but do you really think that’s why?”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Sara. You’re fine the way you are. Heaven knows I’m the last person to be giving advice on this front. You and Scott work well together, but you both have your strengths. I think he just knows himself and knows you well enough to know that you won’t be swayed by any of the temptations or cons going on here. You and I both know that Scott would spend too much time flirting with disaster if he ran point on this,” said Cora.

Sara had to grudgingly admit that, yes, Scott would absolutely get sidetracked from the real mission by getting overly involved in the politics and backroom dealings on Kadara. Sara wasn’t like that. Sara valued directness of approach, as well as manner and speech.

“You really think he’s that deep?” said Sara dully.

“I think he trusts you to handle this more than himself,” said Cora.

Sara made a face.

Cora put a hand on Sara’s shoulder reassuringly. “You’re Alec’s kid just like Scott is. You can do this.”

After confirming with Scott via omni-tool that yes, they absolutely did need to actually retrieve the angaran, Sara found an empty table at an outdoor restaurant, ordered something innocuous, and puzzled through how to go about this. They needed the angaran alive. Sloane Kelly had him and did _not _want him alive. What she really needed was a way to get the angaran out of that prison cell without Sloane Kelly knowing. That implied smuggling and breaking out of jail, neither of which were things Sara knew absolutely anything about.

Luckily for her, she knew an expert. 

Reyes leaned casually against a planter in the shade checking his omni-tool. The meeting had only happened a few hours ago, and already it was obvious that Sloane Kelly and Sara Ryder did not get along. Actually, their mutual hatred was nothing short of legendary, which Reyes basked in. He’d had a feeling that the two women would be ready to claw each other’s eyes out, and it was gratifying that neither party had disappointed. It was a small mercy that Sara was allowed to move freely around the port, though Reyes suspected she was being followed.

She looked up from her table and her gaze happened to fall on the shady corner where her shady contact was inconspicuously lurking. She got up and headed over to greet him, hoping that he had some semblance of an idea of how to proceed.

He greeted her with a cocksure smile that told her that he already knew exactly what had transpired between her and Sloane. “Have a nice chat?”

“She almost shot me,” said Sara irritably.

Reyes chuckled. “Don’t worry. I found a workaround.”

“Let me guess—it comes with strings attached,” said Sara.

“Not any new ones. Remember—Evfra wants Vehn alive, so when you get inside, give him this,” said Reyes as he handed her a small, metal box. “That’ll eat through whatever Sloane’s holding him in and it can’t be traced back to us. A Resistance agent will be waiting to pick Vehn up.”

Sara tucked the box into her pocket. “What if he makes a run for it?”

“It’s covered. You just focus on…whatever it is you need from Vehn,” said Reyes. “There’s a maintenance shaft around the corner,” said Reyes as he typed something into his omni-tool. “Sending the access code to your omni-tool. That’ll get you inside. You should be able to handle the rest.”

“There’s still the matter of the bill you left me with,” said Sara pointedly.

“I’m _usually _the model gentleman,” said Reyes.

“I don’t believe you,” said Sara.

“Because I’m lying,” said Reyes. “When you’re done, come to Tararus. First round’s on me, I promise.”

He winked at her again before walking away and melting into the crowd.

Scott appeared not moments later, having heard the entire conversation via her comms. “You really _are _flirting with disaster, aren’t you?”

She punched him lightly in the arm. “I told you that you left me with the flirty smuggler. You heard him, take whatever this is, here’s the code, and go retrieve our angaran friend. I’m going to go sit in the bright sunlight and be publicly seen _not _doing any of this jailbreaking nonsense.”

“What, not going to head down to whatever Tartarus is and get drinks with your new friend?” said Scott mockingly.

Sara glared daggers at him.

“Fine, fine, I’ll go. I’ll let you know when there’s a development,” said Scott.

\---

It was early evening when Scott spoke to her over comms. “Well, that got way more philosophical than I thought it would.”

Sara swirled her drink—the Andromeda version of iced tea—and relaxed back into her seat at the café as she enjoyed the sunset. She was acutely aware of the eyes on her, likely from the Outcasts. “Did you get it done?”

“Our boy is the Resistance’s problem now. Meet back at the _Tempest_ to suit up. We need to head into the Badlands,” said Scott.

“It’s almost dark,” said Sara bluntly.

“So it is. Ignore me. Wanna grab dinner?” said Scott.

“Not taking your XO on a hot date?” teased Sara. It was a source of unending amusement for her that Scott positively drooled over Cora.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Scott evasively.

“If you say so,” said Sara.

“Shut up,” said Scott. “I’ll meet you in five.”

Scott did not, in fact, meet her in five. Instead, much to her horror, Liam was the one who pulled out the chair across from her and took a seat. “Hey, there, Ryder. How’s it going?”

Sara was instantly self-conscious and uncomfortable. Liam was by all accounts, a very nice guy. The friendly, easygoing, and reliable security specialist had been fast friends with Scott upon arriving to Andromeda. Unfortunately for Sara, he had also begun to flirt with her, and Sara wasn’t about that. While nice, he was too much like a golden retriever for Sara’s liking, and she had never been one for that sort of man. If she wanted someone to follow at her heels and constantly demand affection, she would get a pet, or at least that’s how Sara had always felt. She still felt that way, which is why Liam’s obvious desire to get friendly made her want to run and catch the nearest ship off world. She’d tried to subtly tell him that she wasn’t interested, but thus far he hadn’t taken the hint. She didn’t want to bring it up and make it awkward, but she also _really _didn’t want to have to deal with his unwanted attention.

“Hey, Liam,” said Sara as she took a sip of iced tea, wishing to god that there was hard liquor in it.

“So, Kadara, right? Never thought I’d wish to be back on Voeld,” said Liam.

Sara was instantly determined to adore every aspect of Kadara. “I don’t know, I’ve never really been one for cold weather. Say what you want about this place, but at least I can sit in the sun and have a glass of iced tea, or whatever this is.”

“And get shanked, probably,” said Liam.

“Ah, but I won’t be freezing to death,” said Sara.

Liam frowned, clearly unhappy that she wasn’t jumping on board of the “I hate Kadara” bandwagon with him. “Thought you were pissed we were even here.”

“I was pissed that Scott dumped this angaran traitor business on me, but I have since mostly gotten over it. Mostly,” said Sara.

“Yeah, heard that your meeting with Sloane Kelly didn’t go well. Doesn’t surprise me, given that she’s a criminal. Did she really have a throne?” asked Liam.

“She does,” Sara admitted sourly.

“Wow, sounds like a bitch,” said Liam.

“I wouldn’t say that too loud. If my estimation is correct, she’s having me followed,” said Sara.

“_What_?” said Liam.

“Are you surprised? An unknown Initiative woman from a Pathfinder team turns up uninvited demanding access to a controversial prisoner? It’s not the most unreasonable thing I’ve heard,” said Sara.

“No? Sounds pretty unreasonable to me. And you’re not that crafty,” said Liam.

Sara raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not? Well, I might not personally be plotting the dramatic demise of political rivals, but it hardly takes a genius to understand the motivations and machinations involved. Just because I abhor them doesn’t mean I don’t understand them. I find politics to be like chess, and I’ve always been good at chess. Just ask Scott.”

“Just ask Scott what?” asked Scott as he approached the table and slid into another chair at the table.

“Liam says that I’m not crafty, and I beg to differ,” said Sara.

“As do I. The amount of trouble I got into as a kid on your behalf would certainly attest to that,” said Scott. “Repeatedly dragging you to the ass-end of nowhere to almost get killed by aliens is my payback.”

Sara made a face at him.

“So, how soon are we getting off this rock?” asked Liam.

“Not for a while. There’s a kett transponder hidden in the badlands and we need to track it down. I think we might be able to reverse engineer it to track down the Archon. Not only that, but I’m taken to understand that _maybe _if we can clean up both the streets and the badlands, this place might actually be habitable, which means that we could set up an outpost, maybe even bring the exiles back into the fold in the long term,” explained Scott.

“You really think the exiles will _want _to join forces? They left the Nexus for a good reason and nothing about Kadara suggests to me that they want to go back,” said Sara.

“Not go back, but at least establish relations. It can’t hurt to extend our reach,” said Scott.

“Who’s going to volunteer to live here, though?” said Liam.

“Well, Peebee says that there’s monoliths on this planet as well, so if we get those up and running, the water might stop being toxic and the planet might actually be a not unattractive option. Think about it. It’s not a desert, life already exists here, there’s a profitable port already established, the air temperature is comfortable, and there isn’t a strong kett presence. Of all the planets we’ve been too so far, the only downside here seems to be the exiles, and if we mitigate that problem, we’ll be golden,” said Scott.

“And how do you propose getting the exiles to like us, Scott?” asked Sara blandly.

“Well, you and Sloane Kelly seemed to get along famously, so I’ll leave that up to you,” said Scott.

Sara looked at him.

“Or we find a way to make friends with someone else in power?” said Scott.

“Who? Her turian friend isn’t going to help and the other option is the Collective led by someone named the Charlatan, and I don’t know about you, but somehow I doubt someone faceless like that is going to want to team up and be friends,” said Sara.

“Then we’ll figure something out. But we _need_ an outpost here, and even though it’s going to take a lot of work, it’s going to be necessary,” said Scott.

“Do we have that kind of time right now?” asked Sara.

Scott scrubbed his face. “Not really, but we have to figure out something.”

“Well, maybe an epiphany will come to you when we’re in the badlands tomorrow or something,” said Sara.


	2. Into the Badlands

The next morning, Scott, Sara, Peebee, and Liam had suited and rode the elevator down to the lower wards and the entrance to the badlands, otherwise known as the rest of Kadara that wasn’t the port. The lower wards were, in a word, dingy. Toxic pools marked the ground, the buildings were ramshackle, with some having been converted from old shipping containers, and seemingly the only decent, permanent construction was a massive nightclub with the name Tartarus emblazoned in neon on the front. Beyond that, there was only the processing building next to the outer wall that led to the Badlands.

“Well, that’s Tartarus. Want to stop and have a drink with your new boyfriend?” teased Scott as they walked by.

“Fuck off,” said Sara bluntly.

“Oooh, Sara got a boyfriend?” said Peebee, playing along.

Liam remained impassive.

“Most certainly not,” said Sara.

“She was flirting with our Resistance contact,” said Scott.

“I was not flirting; I was giving him a taste of his own medicine. There’s a difference,” said Sara pointedly.

“That’s not what it sounded like,” said Scott.

“If you’re so perturbed, then maybe you should have just met with the man yourself,” said Sara.

“And leave Suvi and Gil to fend for themselves? I think not,” said Scott.

Sara glared at the back of his head.

They passed through the point of entry after a bit of arguing with the krogan manning the door and climbed into the nomad.

Peebee, ever the one for gossip, refused to let it drop. “Was he cute?”

“Oh, for the love of—why does it matter?” exclaimed Sara.

“He was cute, wasn’t he?” said Peebee.

Sara decided to just get this over with. “Yes, Peebee, he was attractive. Very attractive, with a voice like melting chocolate, and a smile to make vid actors jealous. But he is also a criminal and he left me with the bar tab, and no, I am _not _over it.”

“That was _definitely_ a set up to buy you a drink later,” said Scott.

“Damn girl. Hey, Scott, can I meet the next contact we find?” said Peebee.

“I don’t know, Sara apparently nearly charmed the pants off of this one, so unless you can do better…” said Scott.

Sara made a disgusted noise.

“I don’t get it. He’s a criminal, right? An exile. It seems like a bad idea to get close to him,” said Liam.

“Well, no shit, Liam. In other news, the sky is blue, and the water is toxic,” said Scott.

“It’s a moot point anyway, considering that our Resistance-related business has been resolved,” said Sara.

“Aww, not going to get your drink with him?” teased Scott.

“The drinks weren’t _that _expensive. It’s the principle of the thing,” said Sara.

“And I’ll say it again, it was entirely to get you to complain so that he could offer to buy you a drink,” said Scott.

“I don’t care _why_ he did it, it’s annoying,” said Sara.

“This conversation is annoying,” grumbled Liam from somewhere in the backseat.

“So, what’d he look like?” asked Peebee.

“Didn’t I already concede the point that he was attractive?” groaned Sara.

“Yeah, but I need _details_,” complained Peebee.

“You act like so much happened. I met him twice. It’s over. It’s done. Can we drop this now?” exclaimed Sara.

“I just find it hilarious that you literally had to go to another galaxy to find someone who was interested in you,” said Scott.

“He’s not interested in me! And you’re one to talk, the way you drool over Cora,” said Sara.

“I do not _drool_,” said Scott.

“Haven’t seen you this hot and bothered since Natalie back in the academy,” said Sara.

“We agreed to never bring that up again,” said Scott.

“I agreed to no such thing. But I’m telling you, you’ve got it bad for your XO,” said Sara.

“I do not,” insisted Scott, much too quickly. 

“You realize that there are rules about fraternization,” said Sara.

“This isn’t the Alliance, idiot. There aren’t regs like that. And even if there were, Gil’s friend Jill seems to think that repopulation should be a priority anyway,” said Scott haughtily.

“Regs are there for a reason, Allianace or no. You’re supposed to be objective. You can’t be objective when you’re involved with someone on your team,” said Sara.

“I fail to see how my feelings for Cora get in the way of absolutely anything,” said Scott.

“First of all, ha! You admit it! Second, are you honestly going to tell me that if you had to choose between saving Cora and, say, killing the Archon or something, you could leave Cora?” said Sara.

“That’s an impossible situation and you know it,” said Scott.

“It’s also the reason that regs exist,” said Sara.

“And this is why you don’t have any friends,” said Scott.

“I have friends,” she frowned.

“Do you? Because from what I can tell, you’re so high strung that no one wants to be around you. You’re a killjoy and always have been,” said Scott.

“Well fuck you too,” said Sara.

“I’m just saying, you might consider relaxing a bit. We’re in a totally new galaxy and you have a chance to start over and leave behind the baggage you’re toting around. Just consider it,” said Scott.

There was a brief pause before Peebee cleared her throat. “Would now be a good time to point out that you’re driving the wrong way?”

Scott swore under his breath and Sara laughed at him.

\---

It was a very long day of fighting remnant and tracking down the kett transponder. They’d managed to get to two out of the three monoliths, but the combination of pockets of outlaws and the local wildlife meant that things took a bit longer than usual to accomplish. They’d had to come back the next day and tackle the last monolith and the vault, both of which had been more difficult than usual. Still, at least the water wasn’t nearly as acidic, and with luck, the place should be more habitable reasonably soon.

Still, if traveling around the badlands had proved anything, it was that Kadara was a mess. Criminal activity was rampant, there were dead bodies hidden in waterways, the wind farm was in trouble, crazy people were hidden in the hills—a lot needed to be fixed before an outpost could be placed.

Gil had taken one look at the kett transponder and pronounced its battery drained. It was going to take him a few days to fix it, so they were stuck on Kadara until he finished that. Most didn’t complain. Vetra and Drack both had work to do on Kadara, and the slight reprieve meant that the team could get to work tackling some of Kadara’s numerous problems.

It was midmorning when Scott, Sara, and Vetra were walking through the marketplace, only to come across what appeared to be an active crime scene. A number of horrified bystanders stood around the body of a mutilated angaran that laid in a pool of blue blood. An Outlaw stood nearby managing the crime scene, looking a bit warn.

“The fuck happened here?” asked Scott, looking at the Outlaw.

“Another murder. That damn Charlatan’s been busy, no doubt,” said the Outlaw.

“_Another _murder? This isn’t the first one?” said Scott.

“Been seven more like it. Never leaves evidence. It must be the Charlatan. They’re stepping up their game,” said the Outlaw.

_Pathfinder, my scans may add additional insight into the investigation_, came SAM’s input.

Scott scanned the body.

_The victim has suffered multiple lacerations to the face and abdomen. If there have been more of these murders, Mr. Vidal may know more. I suggest speaking with him_, said Sam.

“Who?” asked Scott blankly. He looked to Sara and asked quietly, “Who’s Mr. Vidal?”

“The Resistance contact. Why?” she asked in confusion.

“SAM thinks he might be able to help with the murder investigation,” said Scott. He smirked at her. “I think it might be time for you to get that drink.”

Sara glared at him.

\---

Half an hour later, Scott, Sara, Vetra, and Drack walked through the front doors of Tartarus and were immediately assaulted by the pulsing music, dim lighting, and unique smell of alcohol, perfume, and metal. Dancers lined the walls in cages, the bar was in its own little cage, and even at midday, there were dozens of people either dancing or lounging around, all seeming to enjoy the atmosphere.

“The drinks here are good. Doesn’t have Kralla’s view, but I like it,” said Vetra.

“Think they have good ryncol here?” asked Drack.

“Where’s your friend?” asked Scott.

“Second floor. Private room,” said Sara. She added as an afterthought, “And he’s not my friend.”

The four of them headed upstairs and found the private room easily enough. Scott pinged the door and it opened a moment later, revealing the spacious interior of the club’s private room. Couches had been arranged on two of the walls in an L shape and coffee table sat in front of one of them with a bottle of whiskey sitting there along with two datapads and a half-filled glass. Reyes Vidal sat on one of the couches next to the coffee table reading another datapad, looking every inch the dashing smuggler that Sara had described him to be. He appeared entirely unperturbed as the party entered his private room and stood to address them, his movements smooth and catlike, yet distinctly predatory.

“I take it you’re not here for that drink,” said Reyes, addressing Sara. He took in her black, white, and purple armor, wondering idly if she chose everything in shades of violet to match her eyes.

“Afraid not,” said Sara.

“This is a business matter, actually. Both Sara and SAM seem to think that you’d have some insight into, shall we say, current events,” said Scott.

“I’m sure you’ve heard about the murders, then,” said Reyes.

Reyes could see why the Pathfinder had thrown Sara to the proverbial wolves in his stead. Scott Ryder may be the Initiative’s poster child at the moment, but he didn’t hold himself like that. He radiated a casual air of recklessness that was distinctly _not _Initiative-like. In many ways, he would probably fit in better in Kadara than his sister, who even now in her armor was holding herself with every inch of Alliance training she had.

“There’s a fresh body outside Kralla’s. Some of the locals say it’s the Charlatan’s handiwork,” said Sara.

“I don’t buy it. The Charalatan’s discreet, careful. Whoever did this wanted the bodies found,” said Reyes. No one noticed the brief shadow that passed over his face at the mention of the Charlatan.

“Making a statement then,” said Vetra.

Reyes nodded to the turian. The two knew each other in passing, as some smugglers are wont to do. Both had a healthy respect for the other.

“But to who is the question,” said Reyes.

“These deaths could just be the result of living in a pirate-run town,” said Sara.

“The killings are too systematic for that,” said Reyes. “No, if I was a betting man—and I am—I’d say it was the Roekaar.”

“Them again?” said Scott, in clear annoyance. “Why would Roekaar be in Kadara Port?”

“It’s anagaran-built and, before Sloane, angaran-run,” said Reyes. “I think the Roekaar came here looking for new recruits, and things got out of hand.”

“And the angaran victims? How do they fit in with your theory?” asked Sara.

“I did some digging. All of the deceased angara were public Milky Way sympathizers,” said Reyes.

“So, the victims were either from the Milky Way…” began Sara.

“Or supported us. It’s the only pattern I could find,” finished Reyes.

“An anagaran port run by aliens _would_ be a prime target for their cause,” allowed Scott.

“Problem is, I’ve got no proof, and the Resistance doesn’t want to antagonize the Roekaar,” said Reyes.

“I’m guessing that’s where we come in,” said Sara.

“I need that fancy AI of yours to scan for evidence that could implicate the Roekaar. People are scared, Ryder. This is your opportunity to win friends in Kadara Port,” said Reyes.

Scott couldn’t resist the opportunity to throw Sara under the bus. “Well, Sara’s always been bad at making friends, so she could use all the help she can get.”

“We sound pretty integral to this plan,” said Sara as she stepped on her brother’s foot.

“SAM is integral. _You’re _a bonus,” said Reyes.

“Hey, we haven’t agreed to help you yet,” said Sara.

“I feel good about my chances,” said Reyes with a smile at Sara. He returned to business. “One of the crime scenes isn’t far. Give me a call when you get there. I’ll send you the navpoint.”

Reyes sat back down on his sofa and quickly sent Sara the navpoint.

\---

“I mean, you weren’t even subtle,” said Scott as they drove in the Nomad through the mountains to the navpoint.

“You wanted information, I got you information,” said Sara.

“He was providing information _without _you flirting with him,” said Scott.

“Let me know if he crosses a line. It’s been a while since I’ve given someone a good old fashioned krogan headbutt,” said Drack.

“I very much doubt it will come to that, but I appreciate the offer,” said Sara in amusement.

“If it helps, as far as smugglers go, he’s not one of the bad ones. Doesn’t transport drugs, doesn’t kill if he doesn’t need to—you know how it is. And he’s independent of the Outlaws and Collective, so at least he’s not involved in that shitshow,” said Vetra.

“Oh good, so he’s a _cuddly_ criminal,” said Scott.

“Certainly a hot one,” said Sara.

Scott shot her a look.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you not see him? Tell me he didn’t win a genetic lottery,” said Sara.

“Well, you always did have a thing for roguish types,” said Scott loftily.

Sara rolled her eyes. “You act as if anything will happen.” 

“Just try not to have a repeat of Ian,” said Scott more quietly.

Sara glared daggers at him, all teasing gone from her voice. “Don’t you _dare _bring that up.”

“Right. My bad. Anyway, we’re here,” said Scott quickly as he threw on the brakes and put the Nomad in park, nearly giving everyone in the car whiplash.

The other three spilled out of the Nomad and they all headed up to the pre-fab house on a little hill. The door opened easily enough, and they immediately walked into an obvious crime scene.

Sara touched her comms. “Reyes, we’re at the crime scene.”

She put him on speaker.

“Great. I’ve got intel on our dead guy. Krogan male. Went by the name of Zear,” said Reyes. “His frontal plate was pried off before he was shot to death.”

Sara looked a little grey at that.

“Poor bastard,” said Scott.

“Not one of mine,” grunted Drack.

“Do your scanning thing. Look for anything that might lead us to the killer,” said Reyes.

Scott scanned the room. There was blood spatter and a number of angaran footprints that led to and from the body in the second room.

_These footprints are distinctly angaran_, said SAM.

“At least three attackers. Tracks make it look like an ambush,” said Scott.

“Fits the Roekaar profile. It’s a start,” said Reyes.

Scott scanned another spot of blood spatter. “Angaran blood. Matches your Roekaar theory, Vidal.”

_DNA cannot identify political affiliations_, said SAM.

“Thanks, SAM, I figured as much,” said Scott.

“Keep scanning. We need hard evidence,” said Reyes.

They headed back outside and found a bloody dagger sitting on top of a crate.

“Well what have we here?” said Sara as she scanned it. “A knife. Killer must have dropped it during the getaway. Something’s carved into the blade.”

_ It’s Shelesh, the angaran trading language. ‘A home filled with strangers becomes a prison’,_ said SAM.

“Sounds pretty Roekaar,” said Scott.

_ This inscription along with the DNA and footprints supports the theory proposed by Mr. Vidal,_ said SAM.

“Let’s pay our local Roekaar a visit,” said Reyes.

“You know where they are?” said Scott.

“I wasn’t sitting on my ass this whole time. I’m looking at the place right now,” said Reyes.

“Send me the coordinates. These murders stop today,” said Sara as she ended the call.

“You sound like a detective in one of those old noir C-Sec films. Actually, that’s exactly what this is like. We’re like partners in C-Sec, you’re the uptight one, and I’m the one who lives on the edge, and Vidal’s our inside man. Together we’ll take down the terrorist organization responsible for a string of killings in Zakera Ward that has threatened the otherwise booming used ship, fish tank, and ramen businesses,” said Scott.

“Please tell me you left those horrible vids in the Milky Way,” said Sara blandly.

“_I _did, but Liam brought all of them, _including _all the Blastos,” said Scott happily.

Sara groaned loudly.

\--- 

The party arrived at the Roekaar base and was able to stroll right in through the front door.

Sara frowned as she looked around, speaking mostly to herself. “Reyes should be here…”

“Sounds like your boyfriend gave us the slip,” said Scott.

“So, is there actually something going on? You and Reyes?” said Vetra.

“That’s not—” began Sara.

Just then, the interior door slid open and a handful of armed angara in armor ran out. “Don’t move!”

The four of them raised their hands in the air.

“Were we too loud?” said Scott.

“Shut up. Farah will deal with you,” said one of the angara.

The angara led them at gunpoint down a hallway and down a set of steps into a large antechamber that was comprised partly of rock and partly of pre-fab units. Clearly, this was the Roekaar base.

A series of Roekaar flanked an angaran woman as they approached the party.

“I don’t need to tell you what happens next,” said the angaran woman—Farah.

“You’re going to try and kill me and my friends. I’ve got a few questions first,” said Scott casually.

“Oh no, you took our weapons, whatever will we do?” said Sara quietly.

Drack chuckled.

“No. You’ll bleed. Just like the others,” said Farah as she pulled out a deadly dagger.

“So, it’s true. You murdered innocent people,” said Scott.

“Invaders and sympathizers are not innocent. I will protect my home,” said Farah as she approached Scott with the knife.

“Look, like it or not, we’re here to stay. You can’t kill us all,” said Scott.

“I can try,” said Farah as she raised the knife, poised the strike, only to have the blade shot out of her hand.

Reyes dropped out of nowhere to stand beside the party. “Not so fast.”

“You’re late,” said Sara.

“I’ve got a good reason. You’ll see in three,” said Reyes.

“Don’t just stand there!” fumed Farah as she began barking orders.

“Two,” counted Reyes.

“Kill them!” roared Farah.

“One,” said Reyes smugly.

An explosion blew Farah clear across the room along with a handful of the Roekaar.

“Still mad?” asked Reyes.

Sara shot him a look before using her biotics to Throw two of the Roekaar against a wall. Scott summersaulted forward, grabbed a rifle, and shot a couple of them in quick succession. Chaos broke out as the Roekaar attacked and the party fought back, and it became clear to Reyes precisely how the Pathfinder had managed to get this far with so few people working with him.

The team worked like a well-oiled machine. Drack and Vetra provided cover fire, drawing enemy attention and taking the brunt of the damage with their shields. Scott worked with his omni-tool and grenades to Overload the enemy’s weapons and then blow them up, occasionally shooting one with his rifle. And Sara was everywhere with her biotics, Lifting enemies, Throwing them, and even Charging, all the while surrounded by a Barrier and shimmering purplish-blue with her biotics. Reyes barely had to do anything, save snipe off a few of the Roekaar as they went for one of the party’s blindspots.

When the fighting was over, and they made for the exit, Reyes addressed them. “The streets of Kadara are safe again. You did good, Ryder.”

Scott raised an eyebrow at him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll let all the important people know who to thank,” said Reyes as he glanced between the twins, his gaze settling on Sara.

“We make a pretty good team,” allowed Sara.

Reyes kept walking towards the exit, stopping when he got close to Sara and turned to look down at her. “Careful—I’ll start thinking you like me.”

Scott rolled his eyes dramatically and headed for the door, Drack in tow. Vetra followed more slowly, eagerly watching the scene unfold.

“Would that really be so bad?” said Sara.

“That depends. Don’t be a stranger, Ryder. I still owe you that drink,” said Reyes with a sly smile as he walked away.

Vetra met Sara at the door as they walked out to meet Scott and Drack at the Nomad.

“No bull, you like him,” said Vetra. There was no judgment in her voice, just stating a fact.

“I don’t hate him as much as I should. And he certainly has a sense of dramatic timing,” said Sara.

“And a nice ass,” said Vetra.

“You said it, not me,” said Sara.

“I’m surprised you don’t mind the criminal aspect,” said Vetra.

Sara seemed a little at war with herself about that. “I mean, it’s doesn’t fill me with glee, but it’s not as if you could realistically open up a charming bookshop or bakery on Kadara as an exile, could you? Besides, you’re a smuggler and I like you.”

“If you say so,” said Vetra. “Just be careful.”

“I mean, how bad can he be if he’s helping us solve murders and working with the Resistance? Either he’s not as terrible as I initially thought, or I’m going through my rebellious phase a decade late,” said Sara.

Vetra laughed. “Don’t let Sid hear you say that. I don’t need her getting any ideas.”

“Now there’s a first. I don’t think I’ve ever been a bad influence before,” said Sara in amusement.

\---

It was two days later that Scott addressed the crew in the conference room.

“We need another outpost. Voeld and Eos are both working out really well, but we need another outpost. I know I mentioned it earlier to a few of you but having been around the badlands a lot more now and having seen a bit more of Kadara in general, I really think that this place could work if properly cleaned up. Think about it, it would bring the exiles back, would be great for the economy of both Kadara _and _the Nexus, and would give us another foothold in the galaxy,” said Scott.

“How’s that going to work when we have to be off world most of the time?” asked Cora.

“And I don’t really like the idea of settling on Kadara. The colonists would be sitting ducks for the exiles,” said Liam, shaking his head.

“I understand your concerns, but I really think that Kadara will work out,” said Scott.

“I’m not arguing that Kadara doesn’t have promise, but I am questioning the logistics of how you’re going to go about setting up an outpost here when clearly it requires a significant amount of attention and _far _more work than either Eos or Voeld. Hell, Eos all you had to do was turn on the vault and stick a flag in the ground. Voeld you just had to clear out a few kett bases since you had the Resistance to back you up. But this is going to be _very _time intensive. And _you _don’t have that kind of time,” said Sara.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve got that kett transponder working. We could have the flagship’s location by tomorrow,” said Gil.

“I know,” said Scott as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Which is why I’ve been thinking, I need to leave someone here to set up the outpost and clean up Kadara while I’m off world,” said Scott.

“You want to do what?” asked Sara with a quiet calm that Scott knew meant she was about two seconds away from erupting like a volcano.

“I’ll admit it’s not my first choice, but, and don’t be mad, Addison already signed off on it. She only agreed to Kadara on this condition,” prefaced Scott.

“Out with it, kid,” said Drack.

“As part of the Pathfinder team, you’d be the liaison to Kadara and basically in charge of cleaning up the place and setting up the outpost. I talked to Addison, and you’ll have Nexus resources at your disposal and full Nexus funding to pay for an apartment and whatnot,” explained Scott.

“And we’d be fully sanctioned to be stuck here on this corrupt rock?” scoffed Liam.

Sara crossed her arms and glared at Scott. He turned his gaze and her and smiled nervously. “So, uh, please don’t Throw me off the balcony, but Sara, I kind of need your help on this one.”

“You want to leave me here,” said Sara in a neutral tone.

“I mean, I don’t _want _to leave you here, but Addison only agreed to it as long as it was _you _who was here. She named you specifically because you’re a Ryder and because you’ve made contacts here. For some reason, she doesn’t hate you, and neither does Kesh or Kandros, so they outvoted Tann and now you’ve got full authority to set up an outpost and clean up Kadara,” said Scott.

“Good thing you can play nice with the locals,” said Vetra in amusement.

“Don’t laugh at my pain,” said Sara.

“You’ll be fine. If anyone get these exiles into line, it’s you,” said Cora.

“It seems dangerous to remain here,” said Jaal.

“I agree,” said Liam.

“Sara, if you find any cool rem-tech while you’re out running around the badlands, can you tell me? At least send me the scans?” asked Peebee eagerly, grinning at Sara. “And if you see any more of the yummy smuggler, send me scans of that too.”

Sara rolled her eyes and frowned at Scott. “You seriously think that this is a good idea?”

“You see what it’s like down there. This place is falling apart at the seams and it can’t stay like that. The sooner you fix things and restore order, the sooner peace can be restored, and everyone will be a lot happier. The Nexus, the angara, the exiles—everyone would be a hell of a lot happier if Kadara Port was tamed,” said Scott.

“And you think dumping this on your only living relation is the answer?” said Sara.

“You are quite literally the only person I or the Nexus trust not to totally fuck this up,” said Scott candidly.

Sara grimaced.

“You got this, kid,” said Drack as he clapped her on the shoulder, making her wince.

“I’ll send you everything I know about Kadara. Contacts, trustworthy people, safe places to walk after dark,” said Vetra.

“I’ll go pack my stuff,” grumbled Sara. 

\--- 

“Think of it as an adventure,” said Scott the next morning as he leaned on the counter of Sara’s new kitchen in an apartment that was as close to posh as Kadara Port ever got.

The apartment wasn’t huge, but it was clean, safe, and had a gorgeous view of the badlands in the distance. Her apartment had all the necessities, from a full kitchen to spacious living area, research station, and hidden armory for all of Sara’s armor, amps, and weapons.

“As if the whole Andromeda Initiative wasn’t adventure enough?” said Sara sourly as she straightened the pillows on her sofa. She was on a cleaning spree, rearranging the furniture and adding personal touches to make the space her own.

“Yeah, but the Initiative hasn’t been all rainbows and unicorns, has it? Nearly dying every day from radiation poisoning, kett, or remnant isn’t exactly fun. Besides, you’re constantly being compared to me when we’re together, and I know how that rankles,” said Scott.

“You’re also all I have left, you know,” she frowned.

Scott sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “I know. Believe me, Sara, I know. I wasn’t kidding though; you seriously are the only one I trust not to fuck this up. The Nexus failed these people and we owe it to them to set things right. True, it might have been Tann’s shit-tastic leadership that mostly led them all to jump ship, but Dad was one of the leaders, you know? A lot of humans joined because he gave them hope, and now he’s gone, but we’re still here. We owe it to him to carry on his legacy and inspire hope where there is none.”

“And you wonder why you’re the Pathfinder?” said Sara.

Scott looked at her in confusion.

Sara shook her head. “Scott, I might have inherited Dad’s lack of interpersonal skills, but you forget that I’ve tagged along with you everywhere since Eos. I’ve seen you in action. You inspire people. _You _give them hope. Mom and Dad would have both been really proud.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not terrible yourself,” said Scott as he hit her lightly in the arm. “Which is why I’m trusting this shit to you. You going to be okay? You realize I’m not totally abandoning you here, right? I’m still always available to chat and I’ll stop by every now and then.”

Sara nodded. “I’ll be fine. Improvise, adapt, overcome, right?”

Scott hugged her briefly. “Hang in there.”

“Stay safe,” said Sara.

With that, Scott left, and Sara surveyed her apartment. He was right, this would be an adventure. The only question was whether or not it would be a good adventure or not.


	3. New Beginnings

With the _Tempest_ gone, Sara needed to begin establishing a plan of attack. She knew a fair amount of what was going on in the badlands, between dead bodies, feuding criminal factions, other pockets of crazy outlaws, and the local wildlife. Among other things. She could take care of a fair amount of that, but she needed someone who actually knew Kadara, particularly what problems the port and surrounding area really had.

Lucky for her, he still owed her a drink.

She pinged his omni-tool and asked to set up a meeting. He responded almost immediately, telling her to come meet him at Tartarus.

Sara felt that she should have been more apprehensive about traveling alone down to the lower wards, let alone meeting with a smuggler in the backroom of a nightclub. It was worrying to say the least, but she swallowed her nerves and strode into the nightclub anyway, head held high and unafraid. It was a strange walk to Tartarus, and it felt as if Sara was finally seeing the real Kadara as she did. Injured exiles were lined up in an old shipping container as a doctor administered first-aid. Other exiles were lined up outside of a soup kitchen getting thermoses, apparently provided by the Charlatan in order to feed the people Sloane had shunned or overlooked. And then there was Tartarus, where people went to drink and forget, or dance their sorrows away. It felt bleak, but Sara hoped that she could do her part to improve things.

She pinged his omni-tool when she reached the door and it almost immediately opened. He was lounging in his usual spot in the corner, an open bottle of whiskey on the table in front of him with two empty glasses.

“Ryder, there you are. I heard the Pathfinder’s ship left earlier this afternoon. Were you not on it?” asked Reyes as he poured her a drink and handed her the glass.

She accepted the glass and sat gingerly on the couch diagonal from him.

“I’ve been left behind to ‘handle’ the situation here. Apparently, I am now the Initiative Pathfinder Representative to Kadara, or something like that. I’ve been tasked with establishing an outpost somewhere here, and if my first few days have told me anything, it’s that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before that can happen. I was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction,” said Sara.

“You’re staying on Kadara?” he said in surprise.

“Apparently I’m the only person both Scott and Addison trust to handle things here, which is laughable given that I’ve never said two words to the woman and could not blend in here less if I tried,” said Sara.

“And your goal is to establish an outpost?” said Reyes.

“The Nexus failed the exiles. An outpost would be mutually beneficial for both the Nexus and Kadara Port. It means more trade, an influx of Nexus resources and equipment, and who knows? If it goes well, maybe the Nexus would even allow some of the exiles to return if they wanted to. Not that I can promise that, but an outpost would certainly be a start. But obviously Kadara needs a lot of work before we’re anywhere near ready for an outpost,” explained Sara.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re…not really liked here in Kadara Port,” said Reyes as he swirled the contents of his glass.

“Ouch,” said Sara, almost wincing.

“What I’m saying is—you need a friend. Someone on the inside to help you out. I can be that guy. You need intel on exiles, Sloane, whatever—come to me,” said Reyes.

“Thanks. I think,” said Sara.

“An outpost sounds like a brilliant idea, but you’re not going to be able to do it alone. Not while Kadara hates you,” said Reyes.

“You sure do know how to charm a girl,” said Sara blandly.

“I can be _plenty _charming when I want to be,” said Reyes.

Sara rolled her eyes and changed the subject. “So, the most obvious crisis facing Kadara, beyond the water situation—resetting the vault mostly fixed that—is the organized crime problem. Things are looking less than friendly between the Collective and the Outcasts,” said Sara.

“Not everyone’s happy living under Sloane’s thumb. Whatever resources Kadara has go to the Outcasts,” said Reyes distastefully. “The rest of us get scraps. The Collective claims to be different, but it’s hard to trust a faceless leader.”

“Especially with a title like ‘the Charlatan’,” said Sara. “Although on my way here I saw what looked like a Charlatan sponsored soup kitchen, so whoever they are, they’re at least not a complete monster.”

Reyes chuckled. “Have to admit—I’m jealous. That’s a better nickname than ‘Shena’.”

“I don’t know. When we were back on Eos, some guy who was tracking the kett operations started calling me ‘little duck’ over comms. The sad part is, it stuck,” said Sara.

Reyes’s mouth twitched into a smirk. “Little _duck_?”

“Don’t laugh at my pain. We were just minding our business, driving around and scoping out this kett facility, then out of nowhere over comms we hear ‘you’re a long way from the flock, little duck’. I asked who it was since Scott was busy trying not to drive us off a cliff—he’s a terrible driver—and this guy sent us a navpoint. We went to meet the guy and here I was hoping that he was calling _Scott _a duck, what with him being Pathfinder and all. But no, it was me. Apparently, I’m louder over comms,” said Sara.

“Little duck? _Pequeño pato_. How creative,” mused Reyes.

“It does not sound any more flattering in Spanish,” said Sara indignantly, blushing slightly.

Reyes grinned at her like the cat that’d caught the canary, or in this case, the duck.

“Your codename. ‘Shena’. What’s it mean?” asked Sara as she desperately tried to change the subject.

“It’s the angaran word for ‘mouth’,” said Reyes awkwardly as he cleared his throat. “I’m good with words.”

“‘Among other things’?” assumed Sara archly.

“_Never_ had a complaint,” said Reyes.

Sara tried not to think about the implications of that. “So, _Shena_, how long have you worked with the Resistance?”

“Few months. When Sloane ‘saved’ Kadara Port from the kett, Evfra wanted eyes and ears on the ground. Figured people would be more loose lipped around their own kind. He was right,” said Reyes.

“Sloane may be tough, but so are the kett. How’d she take them out?” frowned Sara.

“Never underestimate the element of surprise. The kett weren’t ready for an ambush. But they know her tactics now. Next time, Sloane won’t be so lucky,” said Reyes.

“Well, hopefully Scott and the rest of the team make a dent when they find the kett flagship,” said Sara as she swirled the whiskey in her glass and stared into its depths.

“That happening soon?” asked Reyes.

“They’re en route as we speak. Hopefully it goes well,” said Sara.

“Well, speaking of the Resistance, I got word from one of my colleagues. Vehn Terev made it off Kadara. He’s a free man—thanks to you,” said Reyes.

“You helped. A little,” allowed Sara, but her mind was clearly elsewhere.

“Always nice to be recognized,” he replied before asking, “You’re worried about your brother?”

Sara sighed heavily, the weight of the world seeming to settle on her shoulders. “He’s always been the impulsive, reckless one. I just know that idiot’s going to run full tilt into the kett flagship with absolutely no concern for his personal safety. I just hope that he’s okay.”

“Well, he did have both a krogan and a turian with him, so I’m sure he’ll be fine,” said Reyes.

He felt the bizarre urge to comfort her. Despite every instinct he had that told him to not mix business with pleasure, he just couldn’t help himself. Sara Ryder was unlike any other girl he’d ever met, and he felt an odd need to be close to her and to comfort her. This incredible, intelligent, earnest, badass woman drew him in like a moth to a flame. Maybe this could be a mutually beneficial situation. The outpost would be established, order could be restored to Kadara Port, and he could establish a good working relationship with Sara. After all, she’d helped him with those pesky Roekaar murders, and if his assessment of the Ryder twins was correct, this was the one who was best suited to fixing Kadara’s problems.

Sara shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll take Drack at least. And probably Cora, who’s an asari commando.”

Reyes made a mental note not to get on Cora’s bad side. “Then I’m sure the Pathfinder will be fine.”

Sara nodded. “Here’s hoping, anyway.”

Reyes relaxed back onto the couch. “So, what is your first step in doing the impossible and fixing Kadara’s many problems?”

“Well, something tells me that ending the war between the Outcasts and the Collective will not be a quick, easy task, so I’m going to go ahead and not even attempt that one for a long while. Frankly, short of sitting the Charlatan and Sloane down to have a civil chat over coffee with a moderator, I’m not even remotely sure how that could be accomplished without a great many people dying. Of course, it doesn’t help that I have no idea who the Charlatan _is_, nor does anyone else,” said Sara, mostly to herself.

“Solving the Roekaar murders will definitely have helped your case. I’ll spread word around that it was your doing and leave my name out of it,” said Reyes.

“Awfully generous of you,” said Sara in surprise.

He smiled crookedly. “I’m not one for the spotlight.”

“Really? The shady backroom in a nightclub didn’t give me that impression in the slightest,” said Sara dryly.

“Well, we can’t all be Sloane sitting on a throne,” said Reyes.

Sara rolled her eyes. “Of all the ridiculous displays of power I’ve seen, that has to be the worst. No wonder she hopped on the mutiny train; I doubt the Nexus was big enough to hold both her ego _and _Tann’s.”

Reyes laughed. “Isn’t that the truth.”

“Did you play a big part in the mutiny on the Nexus?” asked Sara.

Reyes laughed. “I had nothing to do with that shitshow.”

“Then why’d you leave?” she asked curiously.

“The way Tann handled things didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Decided I could do better on my own. So, I jumped ship with the rest of them. Ended up here,” said Reyes.

“I have to say, and this is probably sacrilege given my affiliations, but I’m pretty impressed with what the exiles have been able to accomplish. Not that becoming the criminal underground in Andromeda is such a great thing, but the infrastructure that’s in place? Even the badlands as they are? According to Jaal, this place used to be nothing and now it’s an economic center and one of the only viable climates in the cluster. For all the shit the Nexus gives the exiles, you did a better job of starting a colony than they did until Scott came along,” said Sara.

“Careful, _you’ll _get exiled if you say that too loudly,” said Reyes in amusement.

She looked at him flatly. “What are they going to do? Send me to Kadara?”

“I’m surprised Director Addison entrusts this to you then,” said Reyes.

“Eh, Scott’s the only one making any progress or bothering to do anything so far. In only a few months, he’s established outposts, begun diplomatic negotiations with the angara, and found leads on the other arks. In short, he’s done more in a few months than the jerks on the Nexus did in over a year, which is why there’s a little leeway if your last name is Ryder at the moment,” said Sara.

“How did he become Pathfinder in the first place? I thought your father was the human Pathfinder,” said Reyes.

Sara took a deep breath, and Reyes immediately regretted asking. “He was the Pathfinder, for about a day. The _Hyperion_ had only just arrived in the cluster and the Pathfinder team was sent down to Habitat-7, which had been hit by the Scourge in a big way with the monoliths offline and kett everywhere. My cryopod was damaged when we hit the Scourge, so I was in the process of being revived from a coma when this all happened, but long story short, my dad died on Habitat-7 and he made Scott Pathfinder as a result. It was a mess. Technically Cora was Dad’s second, so she should have been Pathfinder, but Dad bypassed that and made Scott it instead. It’s been a whole…_thing_. I don’t know. It’s a mess. Part of me is glad I slept through it.”

Reyes didn’t know quite what to say to that, which was something, given that he was so rarely at a loss for words. “That must have been a rude awakening.”

“It could be worse. I still have Scott, and that’s not nothing. It’s more than most people have, anyway, I think. And now I have a nice, time-intensive job to distract me from the rest, so that’s good. Nothing like Sloane Kelly and murderous exiles in the badlands to distract you from everything else,” said Sara, her walls once more firmly in place.

It was clear to Reyes that Sara was done talking about herself.

“Well, as I said before, if you need absolutely anything, I am more than willing to help,” said Reyes.

“For which I am incredibly grateful. It’s a relief to know that at least one person here doesn’t seem to hate my guts,” said Sara.

“For now. Like I said, I’m good with words, and I’ll make sure everyone knows who’s working to clean up Kadara,” said Reyes.

“Thank you,” said Sara with a lovely, genuine smile that Reyes felt to his very core.

“Any time, Ryder,” said Reyes.

With that, Sara said her goodbyes and left, leaving Reyes alone in his Tartarus backroom with the lingering smell of her perfume. He tried to focus on the datapad in front of him and couldn’t. How exactly did lavender perfume make it all the way to Andromeda? And why couldn’t he stop thinking about her smile or those lilac eyes of hers? This was getting out of hand. Sara was too good, too kind, and too selfless to be stuck here on Kadara. He’d seen the darkness that had crept into her eyes, the shadows that had settled over her as she had spoken of her father and brother, of the people she had lost and was afraid to lose. The need to protect her was overwhelming, if only to make sure that she wasn’t hurt like that ever again. He hadn’t particularly cared about the Pathfinder before, but now Reyes felt it absolutely necessary that the man survive.

\---

Sara was relieved beyond words that the Nexus had left her with a rover, otherwise navigating the badlands would have been a serious pain. It wasn’t great to go alone as it was, and after a morning spent scanning and tagging murder victims in sulfur springs, she was just glad that she could sit down and not have to walk for a while. As it was, she still had a lot of business scheduled for the day. Well, not so much as scheduled as arbitrarily tacked onto her checklist for the day. She’d tried to make sure that she was as occupied as physically possible, given that Scott had messaged her early that morning.

They’d found the kett flagship all right, along with the Salarian ark, which had been boarded. Scott said he’d call her when it was over. That was six hours ago, and Sara had been doing her best to stay distracted and occupied since. Driving around and doing things like stopping former Cerberus scientists from performing mind control experiments on unsuspecting exiles seemed to do the trick. Mostly.

It was late afternoon by the time she managed to trudge all the way back to her apartment, tired and sore and sick of being shot at. She’d barely managed to step out of the shower when her omni-tool pinged a vidcall from Scott. She answered it immediately, desperate for news.

Scott looked tired beyond words, a little pale, and more than a little drawn.

“So, do you want the good news or the bad news first?” asked Scott, exhaustion seeping into every word.

“You look terrible. What happened?” asked Sara as she sunk onto her couch.

“Well, let me start by saying that no matter what you’re dealing with on Kadara, you definitely got the better deal. I told you that the kett had boarded the Salarian ark, right? Well, not only had they boarded it, but they were using the Salarians for experiments. They were dissecting them while still awake, Sara,” said Scott, a haunted look coloring his features.

Sara felt the bile rising in her throat. “My god.”

Scott nodded numbly. “So, we found the Salarian Pathfinder, who is one of the first competent people I’ve met in Heleus, let me tell you, and went off to try and find the missing pods. Well, some of them were okay, but a _lot _of the Salarians had been killed and, um, dissected. We fought our way to the Archon’s quarters or command center or what have you to find Meridian, which we kind of did, and we got captured. The Archon captured us in stasis. Me, Cora, and Drack, all hovering there. It was based on heartbeat, so basically, if you were alive, you were stuck there.” Scott took a deep breath. “I had SAM stop my heart so I could escape from stasis. Sara, I was dead for…thirty seconds or so. I’ve now technically died twice since coming to Andromeda. Twice, Sara. I’m trying not to freak out, but I mean, I _died_. _Twice_.”

Sara barely knew what to say. “You…what?”

“SAM brought me back to, but dying _hurts_, Sara. So much for it being easier than falling asleep. It was _not_ easier, it was _not _fun, I did _not _have a thirty-second-long beach vacation with Mom and Dad, and I am _really _trying not to freak out right now,” said Scott, who was absolutely freaking out.

“Okay, breathe, Scott. Deep breaths and try to relax. You’re alive now and it was only temporary. Did you save Drack and Cora?” said Sara. She knew she had to swallow down her own feelings about this to make him feel better. She’d been doing it since they were children.

“Yeah, they’re fine. Well, Drack is beyond pissed that I saved the Salarian Pathfinder instead of his scouts, but otherwise he’s fine,” said Scott.

“Scott, listen to me. I can’t change what happened, and I know you’re freaking out because I would be too. I wish I was there with you to help you through this, but you need to know that everything is going to be okay. From the sound of things, you made a beyond difficult call and you made the right one under the circumstances. And…I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now, I know, but despite everything that happened, you are _alive_. You’re alive and you’d better stay that way or so help me Scott Ellis Ryder I will track you down and throttle you myself,” said Sara.

“How does that work if I’m not alive?” said Scott, seeming to return more to his usual self with his sister’s ridiculous threats.

“That’s not the point. Look, Scott, you have a lot of people who love you, okay? I wish I was there, but your crew cares about you—they’re your friends. Spend some time with them. Relax, watch some terrible C-Sec noir movies or the Blasto series, and just take a breather. You rescued an ark and found a lead on Meridian. You did an _amazing _job and you need a break. So, go relax. You’ve more than earned it,” said Sara.

“Do you and Lexi exchange tips on how to get me to do things or something?” asked Scott dryly.

“Why, did she tell you the same thing?” asked Sara.

“…Maybe,” said Scott. “Well, and freaked out about SAM being able to stop my heart, but he can restart it too, which is what I’m choosing to focus on here.”

“SAM saved your life,” said Sara.

“Yeah,” said Scott, seeming a little sad. “It’s like Dad saved my life all over again.”

“Scott, that wasn’t your fault. You know that,” said Sara.

“You weren’t there, Sara,” said Scott.

“No, but I know you and I know Dad. He wasn’t good with saying it, but he loved us, and I know that he didn’t regret for a second giving his life to save yours. It’s not your fault, it’s not his, hell, it’s not even the kett’s fault. Blame the Scourge if you want to blame anything, but sometimes these things just happen,” said Sara.

“Andromeda was his dream, Sara. And he never even got to really see it,” said Scott.

“And he would be so proud that you’re the one leading everyone and you’re the one who’s going to save it,” said Sara.

Scott sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Do you ever get tired of being right?”

She smiled lightly at him. “I’ll let you know if it ever happens.”

Scott took a deep breath. “All right. Cora said to go meet her once I was done talking to you, and you know how she gets if I keep her waiting.”

“Love you. Please stay safe,” said Sara.

“You too,” said Scott, and with that he signed off.

Sara collapsed back onto her couch and stared at the ceiling, processing everything that had just happened. She refused to think about the fact that Scott had died—actually _died_. She absolutely refused to think about that. Instead, she chose to look on the bright side, which was that he was presently alive. Despite everything, Scott was alive and kicking, and probably swooning over Cora at the moment. He was alive and he was safe, at least for the moment, and that wasn’t nothing. Everything would work out in the end. It had to. Otherwise, Sara didn’t know what she would do.

\---

Reyes frowned at the datapad in front of him instead of looking at the grinning angaran sitting across from him. Keema was particularly smug today, and while Reyes did not yet know why, he had the distinct impression that it was not to his benefit.

“So, I see that Sara Ryder has remained here on Kadara. And she’s been busy,” said Keema as she took a long draw of her cigar.

And there it was.

“She’s planning on establishing an outpost. I understand that the Pathfinder left her here to take care of it in his absence,” said Reyes.

“You must be quite pleased,” said Keema.

“An outpost would certainly benefit Kadara,” said Reyes.

“Reports say she’s quite beautiful,” said Keema.

“Haven’t noticed,” said Reyes.

Keema looked at him. “_You _would have noticed before anyone else.”

“And if I did?” countered Reyes, narrowing his eyes at Keema.

Keema smiled broadly. “You’ve been lighter since she’s arrived.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Reyes.

“Beautiful, smart, capable,” listed off Keema.

“Is this going somewhere?” frowned Reyes.

“You like her,” said Keema.

“She’s from the Nexus. I’m using her to get that outpost,” said Reyes.

“At the beginning, maybe, but not now. Now she’s meeting you for drinks, asking you for advice, and paying you in smiles,” said Keema.

“I don’t involve myself with women from the Nexus,” said Reyes.

Keema scoffed at him. “You certainly do with this one. I know you, Reyes, and you like her.”

Reyes put down his datapad, giving up on reading the intelligence report he’d been looking at. “Women like Sara Ryder do not involve themselves with people like me, Keema.”

“That you know of, anyway,” said Keema.

Reyes picked up his glass of whiskey from the table in front of him and surveyed its contents. “She thinks I’m just a sympathetic smuggler and Resistance contact.”

“And you doubt she would approve of anything else?” said Keema.

“Among other things,” said Reyes.

“You will need to tell her eventually,” said Keema.

Reyes shook his head. “Even if I wanted to, she would be in danger from Sloane if I did. You know that.”

“You cannot keep her in the dark forever. The longer you wait, the greater the fallout will be,” said Keema.

“Then I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. But I’m not going to put her needlessly in danger just to clear my own conscience,” said Reyes bitterly as he threw back the rest of his drink.

“You’re happier with her around. You should at least tell her that,” said Keema.

“She deserves better,” said Reyes.

“You’re not giving yourself enough credit,” said Keema.

Reyes looked at her. “I give myself _plenty_ of credit.”

“Give her a chance,” said Keema.

Reyes ignored her and retrieved his datapad. “So, about those shipments to Draullir.”

“Reyes,” said Keema.

“So far, the Outcasts haven’t noticed, but we should shift drop points just in case,” continued Reyes.

“Denying it won’t help,” said Keema.

“I was thinking here, secure, sheltered, and minimal chance of interference,” said Reyes.

“You deserve to be happy, and so does she,” said Keema.

“On the other hand, this drop point is closer to the base entrance,” said Reyes.

“Would you rather some law-abiding drip of a man from the Nexus woo her instead?” said Keema.

Reyes attempted to seem unaffected, even as the very idea of another man looking at Sara fed the ugly monster of jealousy within him. “Do you remember when the Outcasts last changed their patrol schedules in the badlands? I have a feeling they’ll be changing soon.”

“Please just tell her how you feel. Make your move or _something_. It’s painful to watch you like this,” said Keema.

Reyes caved. “If only to get you off my back about it.”

Keema was positively triumphant.


	4. The Ex Factor

It had been a very long, exhausting couple of weeks, but Sara was convinced that she was making progress. She’d fixed the wind farm, ended the Outcasts’ ability to produce Oblivion, cleared out a cannibalistic group of exiles, fixed a number of water filtration problems, helped more than a few people track down lost loved ones, and somehow—and this was Sara’s proudest accomplishment—she hadn’t even gotten shot in the process. Shot _at_, certainly, but never actually properly _shot_, with blood and everything. Even so, Sara made sure to stock plenty of medi-gel. Just in case.

She’d been there for almost a month now and she was becoming more and more familiar with how Kadara worked, just as Kadara Port was becoming more familiar with how Sara Ryder worked. Word had successfully spread that she was working to clean up Kadara and having a rather successful go of it too. That, and Outcast and Collective members alike who’d had run-ins with her in the badlands and somehow survived always stumbled back with identical looks of annoyed, awed horror, having witnessed biotics powerful enough to rival asari commandos. Kadara Port may have had a no guns rule, but biotics were always armed.

The regulars at Tarartus were getting used to Sara’s semi-normal trips to the place, always to the private room on the second floor. She never bothered anyone, and most didn’t bother her either, especially once faced with glowing eyes. Prejudice against human biotics had traveled all the way to Andromeda apparently. It was no different that day as Sara strolled into Tartarus still scanning a datapad. She pinged the private room’s door absently and barely waited for a response before walking inside.

Reyes played it casual as he tossed aside his own datapad to address her. “Ryder, perfect timing. You saved me the trouble of looking for you.”

“Should I go? You seem like the type who enjoys the chase,” said Sara.

Their casual flirtation had become a much more usual thing, mixed with a healthy dose of sarcasm, antagonism, shockingly successful business dealings, and genuine friendship. It was a fairly comfortable arrangement, though Sara knew her innumerable attempts to learn anything about him had scarcely scratched the surface.

Reyes chuckled. “Looks can be deceiving. I’m too shy for that nonsense.”

“Oh yeah, a real introvert,” said Sara dully. “So, what did you need me for?”

“A business rival—Zia Cordier—lifted cargo I was moving for a client,” said Reyes, a bitterness seeping into his words.

Sara raised an eyebrow. He’d never asked for her help on smuggling related issues before, likely knowing that her only smuggling knowledge came from vids and what she’d managed to gleam from Vetra.

“You want my help getting it back,” reasoned Sara.

“We worked so well together on the Roekaar job and lately, so I thought you might be willing,” said Reyes.

“All right, so what did she steal?” asked Sara, getting straight to the point.

“No idea. Client paid extra for privacy. Considering my fees, it must be valuable,” said Reyes.

“You didn’t _check_?” gaped Sara.

“Honor’s got a price, and the client paid it,” said Reyes simply.

“How’d this rival of yours even get hold of your cargo?” frowned Sara.

“Her usual tactics. Got my middleman drunk then stole his ship,” said Reyes tiredly.

“Sounds like you know from experience,” said Sara.

“Please, I keep to a three-drink maximum when I’m on a job,” scoffed Reyes.

“Hmm, yes, the picture of temperance,” said Sara. She let out a resigned sigh. “Fine, I’ll help. But we cut the profits 50/50.”

“60/40, final offer,” said Reyes with a chuckle.

“Deal,” said Sara.

“When she stops in Kadara, Zia drinks at Kralla’s Song. We’ll start there, see if Umi heard anything there that could help us,” said Reyes.

Not wanting to tote around her datapad of reasonably sensitive information on this sort of questionable investigation, Sara stopped off briefly at her apartment before meeting Reyes at Kralla’s. She found him sitting at the bar nursing a drink.

“You look like you’re waiting for someone,” said Sara as she slipped into the spot next to him.

Reyes smirked at her. “That’s my line.”

Umi let out a groan of disgust. “You want a drink or a room?”

“Information, actually,” said Reyes as he leaned casually on the bar.

“That’ll cost you more than drinks,” said Umi.

“My friend’s good for it,” said Reyes.

Sara shot him a frown. “You owe me for this.”

“You’re one person I will happily owe something,” said Reyes.

Umi made a disgusted noise. “What do you want to know?”

“Zia Cordier. She been around recently?” asked Reyes.

“You mean your ex? Yeah, she was here,” said Umi.

“Ex? As in _girlfriend_?” said Sara, turning to look at Reyes, her irritation obvious.

“Girlfriend is such a strong word. We had drinks occasionally. So…” Reyes cleared his throat and returned his attention to Umi, desperate to change the subject. “She was here?”

“Yeah. Met with a salarian,” said Umi. “Shifty guy I’ve never seen before. Maybe it was the Charlatan.”

“Anything’s possible. You overhear their conversation?” asked Reyes.

“They were planning to meet someone at Spirits’ Ledge,” said Umi.

Reyes thanked her and Umi walked away, glad to be rid of them.

“If you check the meeting spot, I’ll follow the Collective lead,” said Reyes. “Doubt Zia was meeting the Charlatan, but you never know.”

“Is this job about getting your cargo back or one upping an ex?” asked Sara bluntly.

“Why, Ryder…are you jealous?” he teased.

“Just answer the question,” said Sara. 

“It’s about the cargo,” said Reyes. “I’ll work my contacts. Give me a call when you get to the meeting spot.”

Sara nodded and left Kralla’s.

\--- 

It wasn’t a particularly long trek out to Spirits’ Ledge, particularly with her rover, but there was definitely no cargo, or anything that resembled cargo. The only thing out of the ordinary was a datapad that SAM helped her find, and that was hidden away in some mini cave alcove.

She called Reyes. “Hey, I found a datapad with what looks like a navpoint.”

“Must be where Zia’s hiding the cargo. Probably left that behind for the buyer,” said Reyes.

“Why not just tell the buyer directly? What’s with all the cloak and dagger?” frowned Sara.

“Frequencies can be hacked. Dead drops are considered safer—especially for a big sale,” explained Reyes.

“I’ll take your word for it. So, did you find anything on your end?” asked Sara.

“The salarian is a fence. No direct connection to the Collective. My guess is that Zia met him to find potential buyers,” said Reyes. “Let’s follow up on those coordinates. I’ll meet you there.”

The navpoint wasn’t particularly far, but that didn’t stop Sara from grumbling the entire drive over there. And here she’d thought all of her brother’s ex-girlfriends had been pieces of work. This was really something else. Why was she even helping with this? Ok, so she knew why she was helping, but _still_.

Reyes was waiting for her outside of the storage facility when she got there, and they headed inside. There was a balcony above, and a number of crates scattered around, including a set of large ones in the near center of the room. But it was otherwise empty. No guards, not even a squatter or a thief. It was all a little too…tidy. Sara’s biotics itched beneath her skin.

Reyes headed over to the larger crates and checked them before looking at Sara in surprise. “It’s…empty.”

Sara could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up. “What if this was all just some elaborate trick to get you here?”

“You mean that there was never any cargo?” said Reyes.

A smooth French accent drifted from the open door as a woman with shoulder length auburn hair, grey eyes, and a pretty, heart shaped faced swaggered into the room. “Bravo. I knew you’re figure it out eventually.”

“Zia,” said Reyes in mild distaste as he turned to face her.

“You could never resist a big payout,” said Zia.

“What can I say? I’m a greedy man,” said Reyes.

“That’s why you don’t have any friends; you’re selfish,” said Zia.

“He’s a better man than you think,” said Sara, her steely Alec Ryder glare firmly in place.

Zia wasn’t the least bit intimidated. She laughed, a sweet, tinkling sound. “Oh, honey, you’ve no idea how wrong you are. But you will.”

“Leave her out of this,” said Reyes darkly, jumping to her defense.

Zia’s eyes glittered as she smiled wickedly at him. “You must _really _like this one, Reyes.”

Reyes had had enough. “Cut the shit. What’s this all about?”

“You’ve been taking all the good jobs in Kadara,” said Zia. “It’s gotten more than _my _attention.”

“So what? The local smuggling union got together and decided to take me down?” said Reyes.

“You have a union?” said Sara quietly.

They both ignored her.

“Something like that,” said Zia as she drew her shotgun.

Reyes rubbed his forehead as swore quietly as Zia called for her reinforcements.

It all happened rather quickly. Zia trained her shotgun on Reyes, he shot first, hitting her square in the chest. The four reinforcements she’d brought with her ran down the stairs. One got a Lance to the head, one was Thrown into another, the other was Charged, all in the space of time it took for Reyes to check Zia’s pulse.

With that over, Sara found Reyes by the door, her biotics slowly fading.

“I knew I wasn’t popular, but I never thought the other smugglers would _team up _against me,” said Reyes, more annoyed about this than anything. He got over it quickly, though. “Kind of flattering, actually.”

“They might try again,” said Sara.

Reyes chuckled. “You’re worried about me?”

“Reyes,” she said, arms crossed and serious.

“Relax. I know they’re coming now. They won’t get the jump on me,” said Reyes. He made a face. “All that effort and no credits to show for it.”

“Not everything has to be about credits, you know,” said Sara.

“That’s true,” agreed Reyes. “What you said back there. About me being a better man. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied.

Reyes surveyed the damage around them, his gaze settling on Zia’s corpse. “I should clean up this mess. Zia was a piece of work, but it feels wrong to leave her out in the open.”

Sensing the end of the conversation, Sara simply nodded and left the building, returning to her rover.

This had been a _day_. 

\---

Sara did not usually entertain visitors, primarily because she didn’t exactly have a lot of friends who liked her enough to even want to visit her. On the _Tempest_ she had enough friends, maybe, but not on Kadara. As such, she didn’t much mind keeping her apartment in a state of lived in chaos. Well, for her it was chaos. In truth it was really quite clean, with the odd throw blanket tossed over the sofa, an old teacup sitting out, and datapads on most surfaces. The apartment was part command center, part refuge from the outside world, with a number of displays and consoles being devoted to either Kadara operations or Pathfinder interests that Scott had asked her to look into.

Given the rarity of visitors, Sara was perfectly justified in meandering about her apartment in leggings and a hoodie with her hair in a messy bun, drinking tea while updating her operational plan and map of the badlands. Yes, she was perfectly justified in not expecting company, and nearly jumping out of her skin when someone knocked on her door and her omni-tool pinged. After glancing at her omni-tool and calming her heart rate, she went to answer the door, regarding the visitor curiously as she did.

“How do you even know where I live?” asked Sara blankly.

Reyes smiled charmingly at her. “I am in the business of information, Ryder, and you are not exactly hiding.”

She stepped aside to let him in, suddenly very conscious of both her appearance and the state of her apartment. After closing the door behind him, she hurriedly retrieved a few teacups and ran them to the kitchen, talking as she did. “Excuse the mess, but I don’t usually have guests. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Given how poorly things worked out yesterday, I felt it only right to apologize,” said Reyes as he sat down on her couch and stretched his arm along the back of it.

She offered him coffee and he politely accepted. She returned moments later with two cups of coffee and handed him one. “Sorry I don’t have anything stronger, but my biotics metabolize it all too quickly.”

“I had wondered at how you never seem affected,” said Reyes.

“It’s both a blessing and a curse, much like biotics in general,” said Sara as she settled on the other end of the couch with her legs crossed beneath her.

Reyes was briefly thrown off by how incredibly domestic this all felt, from her uncharacteristically untidy appearance, to the way she was sitting, to the coffee. It was a pleasant, warm feeling, not unlike the coffee itself, and Reyes felt he could easily get used to this.

“I don’t really see how that would qualify as a curse, other than not getting drunk,” said Reyes.

“No? Well, maybe you’re more open-minded then most, because at least in the Milky Way, human biotics were largely regarded as outcast freaks and ostracized. Joining the Alliance or hanging around a lot of _really _understanding asari are usually the only options,” said Sara.

“And you went the Alliance route,” reasoned Reyes.

“Well, when your mother designs biotic implants for the Alliance and your father is an N7 and the Alliance representative to the Citadel, the decision sort of makes itself. Scott just joined for the adventure of it and because he wanted to be an N7 like Dad,” said Sara.

“They put you on the front lines?” asked Reyes.

“Nothing like you pilots, I’d wager. I was a recon specialist. Scott did a lot of tech stuff while guarding a mass relay,” said Sara.

“Bet that’s coming in handy here,” said Reyes.

Sara waved vaguely to the maps of territory and numerous readouts behind her. “You think?”

Reyes’s gaze scanned the maps and he raised an eyebrow, impressed. “You’ve been busy.”

“Mapping out where the Outcasts and Collective both are is just survival at this point. Minimize my chances of getting shot at while just trying to take water samples,” said Sara.

“And you’ve certainly done that. You even found the Collective headquarters,” said Reyes.

“They’ve got a pretty nice setup in Draullir. Whoever the Charlatan is, they knew what they were doing when they picked their spot,” said Sara.

Reyes seemed somewhat amused by this but didn’t inquire further. Instead, he chose to return to his original purpose. “As flattered as I am sure the Charlatan would be by your praise, I did not come here to discuss the logistics of organized crime with you.”

She waved away his concern. “If this is about Zia, you don’t need to apologize. It’s not as if you knew you were walking into an ambush and I’m glad I was there to be backup.”

“If I had known, I would never have endangered you,” said Reyes.

Sara regarded him in amusement. “I can protect myself, you realize.”

“Still, that was a shitshow, and I’m sorry that I dragged you into it,” said Reyes.

Sara shrugged. “Hey, we’ve all got shitty exes, right? I’m just glad that I left mine in the Milky Way.”

“None who’ve organized your murder, though, I expect,” said Reyes.

“No, you’ve definitely got me beat on that one. The only thing I risked dying of was embarrassment, not bullets,” said Sara.

“There’s a story with that, I’d wager,” said Reyes.

“Nothing quite so exciting as what just happened to you,” said Sara.

“Ah, but now you’ve got me curious,” said Reyes.

Sara studied her coffee cup for a long moment, shrinking in on herself and clearly deciding whether or not she really wanted to reopen this particular wound. Scott was the only one who knew about this particular nightmare, and she’d been more than happy to leave the experience firmly in her past. Her mortification had been such that she’d never even talked about it with anyone.

“If you don’t want to—” began Reyes.

Sara shook her head and took a breath before saying, “He was an Alliance officer. A friend of Scott’s, actually, which is how I met him. Ian Sharp. He was smart, funny, personable—was an engineer but never seemed to mind my biotics. Anyway, we’d been dating for about a year while we were both stationed on Arcturus when he got shipped off with the Fifth Fleet as an engineer on some warship. It was a great assignment, and things seemed to have been going well between us, so we decided to do long distance.”

Sara set down her coffee mug and hugged a dark purple pillow instead. “About a month into his deployment, my father had his fall from grace, as it were, and my mom got sick, so Scott and I both moved back to Earth. About two months after that, Ian was court-martialed for fraternization. Apparently, he’d been caught in flagrante delicto with one of the other officers. It came out during the trial that they’d been having an affair for months, almost from the moment they were assigned together. So, you know, that was great to hear about from an official court document. Before I could even confront him about it, he sent me an essay of an email detailing how I was the most boring person he’d ever had the misfortune to date, a biotic freak, duller than a plain scone—his words, not mine—and a waste of oxygen. Evidently, he’d only gotten close to me in the first place and been friends with Scott because our dad was an N7 and the Alliance rep to the Citadel and he thought he could get a promotion out of it.

“I thought Scott was going to kill him, but before Scott could even call him to scream at him or get a navpoint to find him, Ian had already joined up with Cerberus, which was really just the final slap in the face. In the end I just swore Scott to secrecy about it and tried to just pretend it never happened. I never even told my parents about it. They both had more than enough to worry about without me adding my poor judgment to the mix.”

Sara took a breath and swallowed her emotions, fixing Reyes with a light smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “But that was ages ago, and at least he never tried to shoot me.”

Reyes felt a pit forming in his stomach. It might have been years ago, Ian Sharp might be six hundred years gone in the Milky Way, but he’d clearly left lasting damage. It was good, Reyes thought, that Ian Sharp hadn’t come to Andromeda. If he had, the man would be about to meet with a sudden, extremely painful, and not even remotely tragic accident. She’d been used, hurt, and embarrassed, her trust and heart both broken completely, and Reyes knew immediately that he was the exact wrong person for her. How could he justify lying to her when she’d been so badly hurt in the past? He could tell himself that it was for her own protection until he was blue in the face, but would she ever see it that way? Sara Ryder was an amazing, vibrant, intelligent, beautiful woman who deserved to be loved properly, and he wanted to be the one to love her. Badly. She made him want to be a better person—made him want to be the man she thought he was. But he wasn’t. And the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.

But if Sara Ryder was a drug, Reyes was already addicted. Even as his conscience told him to walk away now, he couldn’t. She was entirely unlike any other woman he’d ever met, and Reyes had never felt like this about anyone before. And even though he knew it would probably end in disaster, he just couldn’t let her go.

Reyes leaned back on the couch and swirled his coffee as he might have a glass of fine liquor. “Ian Sharp was clearly a blind fool who didn't realize what he had.”

Sara blinked at him in surprise.

Reyes looked at her. “You are many things, Ryder, but certainly _not_ boring or a waste of space. Nobody who travels all the way to a different galaxy and makes cleaning up _Kadara_ of all places their pet project could ever be called boring. Certainly not with your addiction to purple.”

Sara could feel her face grow warm. She didn’t know what to say to that, unaccustomed to such praise. Instead she focused on the other part. “What’s wrong with purple?”

“Do you purposely choose your clothes and décor to match your eyes or is that merely a coincidence?” said Reyes.

It was not a coincidence, which is why it was so incredibly embarrassing. Scott was the only other one who ever gave her a hard time about this or bothered to notice for that matter.

When her only response was her face turning roughly the color of a tomato and biting her lip, Reyes grinned. “It is because it matches your eyes, isn’t it?”

Sara groaned and hid behind her hands. “Blame my mom; she’s the one who used to buy me purple stuff when I was a kid. It’s not my fault it just stuck.”

“_Adorable_,” teased Reyes.

Sara groaned again. “Not. Helping.”

“I wouldn’t complain. I happen to think that your eyes are a rather lovely color,” said Reyes as he sipped his coffee and kept his gaze locked on her lilac one.

Her face burned at the compliment. “Oh, well, thank you.” She needed to take the heat off of herself. She tried her best to regain her composure. “So, is your eye color the reason you like whiskey so much?”

Reyes laughed. “I enjoy whiskey for the taste and the alcohol, not because it matches my eyes. You’re the only one who would be that coordinated.”

Sara shrugged. “What can I say? I like to be organized and have things color-coded. Being a twin might be part of it; there was always two of everything, and it made our parents’ lives a little easier if they knew that everything purple was mine and everything blue was Scott’s. He still hoards blue stuff, though he’ll never admit it.”

“But not because it matches his eyes,” said Reyes.

“Nope, that’s just me,” said Sara.

Someone pinged Reyes’ omni-tool and he frowned down at whatever message it was.

“Hot date?” she asked before she could stop herself.

Reyes chuckled. “Definitely not. Have a meeting with a client, and I doubt his shirt will match his eyes.”

Sara tried to ignore how she kept blushing. “Try not to get shot at this time.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” teased Reyes. He fixed her with another charming smile. “Thank you for the coffee. I’ll see you soon. Oh, and regarding Zia? I’ll have you know that my taste in women has improved substantially since then.”

With that, he left the apartment and Sara collapsed back onto the couch, grinning like an idiot. Either he liked her—actually liked her—or was an incorrigible flirt and a tease, and while she knew he was definitely a flirt, she found herself hoping that it was mostly the former. She liked Reyes, as questionable as his business practices were. He was definitely guarded, and absolutely secretive about himself, but she had a feeling that was mostly habit and self-preservation rather than malicious intent. He wasn’t anything like Ian. No, Ian had played the nice guy and used her for his own selfish gain before tossing her aside like a used napkin. Somehow, she didn’t see Reyes doing that. Was he helping her so that he could benefit financially from an Initiative outpost in the future? Probably. But he didn’t need to flirt with her to get that. He didn’t need to get drinks with her, talk to her all the time about life, or be friends with her for that. So maybe…maybe things could be different. Maybe it was finally time to trust someone again with her heart.

\--- 

Reyes read and reread the datapad before him, absorbing none of it as his thoughts remained firmly on Sara Ryder in her color-coded apartment, with the way her leggings had hugged her curves and the way her hair had framed her face. He thought about the pain in her eyes when she’d called herself boring and the surprise and hope that had replaced it when he’d told her she wasn’t. It was all very…distracting.

“You need to ask her on a date already. This is getting ridiculous,” said Keema, dragging him back to reality.

“Hmm?” he said.

“Ryder. You’re pining, Reyes,” said Keema, ever the observant one. What it was with the angara and emotions and relationships, he would never understand.

He set down the datapad with a heavy sigh and scrubbed his face with his hands. “I am the wrong person for her, Keema.”

“You care about her. That makes you the exact _right _person for her,” said Keema.

He shook his head. “You don’t understand. She told me about her ex. He cheated on her and used her because of who her father was. I can’t do that to her too.”

“You are not using her, Reyes. Not anymore. You care about her and are worried about hurting her,” said Keema.

“If she ever finds out that I lied to her, she’ll be crushed,” said Reyes.

“That has a very simple solution: tell her the truth,” said Keema.

“And what? Put her in more danger than she’s already in? Crush whatever image she has of me? You didn’t hear how she defended me to Zia. She thinks I’m a good person, Keema,” said Reyes miserably.

“She may surprise you,” said Keema.

“By leaving for the Nexus and never coming back,” said Reyes.

“If you explain things to her, and if she likes you as much as you like her, then things will work out,” said Keema.

Reyes rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know…”

“Sloane is throwing a party in a few days. I can get you on the guest list with a plus one,” said Keema.

He frowned at her. “And how does bringing her to the people who might kill her help anything?”

Keema looked at him pointedly. “It’s a date, Reyes. Bring her to the party. I want to meet her.”

Reyes sighed heavily. “If this ends in tears, it’s your fault.”

“And if it doesn’t, I’ll take full credit,” said Keema as she relaxed back on her couch and took a long drag off her cigar.

\---

It was two days later that Sara was in her apartment updating her map when she called Reyes, intent on asking him a quick question about smuggling drop point locations. Where were they most often located? Was there a specific region?

“Ryder. I was just thinking about you,” his smooth voice purred.

“I’d love to hear more, but I actually had a quick question to ask you,” said Sara.

“I could tell you over drinks,” he offered. “Sloane’s holding a get-together for the locals tomorrow. I managed to snag an invite. Care to be my plus-one?”

Sara’s heart did gymnastics in her chest, but she played it cool. “Sloane doesn’t seem like the party type.”

“She sees these events as a necessary evil to keep the people happy,” said Reyes.

“Then are you asking me out?” asked Sara. She didn’t want to seem _too _eager.

“I promise to be the _perfect_ gentleman,” said Reyes.

“Then this is just a friendly night out,” said Sara.

“What_ever_ you want, Ryder,” said Reyes, not the least bit deterred.

“All right, well, I never say no to free drinks,” said Sara.

“Especially from Sloane’s reserve. I’ll meet you outside Outcast HQ,” said Reyes.

It was only after he’d ended the call that Sara realized that she’d completely forgotten to ask him about drop point locations and found that she didn’t particularly care. She had a date! A real date! Albeit with her attractive smuggler friend with questionable moral fiber, but still a _date_. To a _party_.

_He’s probably just bringing you because your brother is the Pathfinder_, her good sense told her. _Remember what happened with Ian_.

\---

Sara frowned at the turian standing in front of her, unsure that she had heard him correctly. “You want me to do what now?”

“Just…go check out this navpoint. I thought we’d cleared these bastards out, but there have been whispers that it’s kett, and I want them cleared out on the off chance that it’s true,” replied Kaetus.

He’d called her down to Outcast HQ asking for her assistance, and Sara had been surprised enough by the invite to comply. Now she was just annoyed.

“Oh, well, we can’t have word spreading that there are kett about, can we?” said Sara, arms crossed and making no secret of her displeasure.

Kaetus’s mandibles flared in irritation. He didn’t like Sara Ryder any more than Sloane did, possibly less, and the only reason she was even being brought in was her extensive experience with the kett off world. And the desperate need to keep this under wraps.

“No, we can’t. Go to the navpoint and check it out. Kett are bad for everyone, including that outpost you want so badly,” said Kaetus.

Sara scowled. “Fine. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

\---

It was kett all right. As Sara laid on her stomach in a small tunnel of rock and looked through her visor down into the cave below, unseen by anyone, she could see it all clear as day. As if the crashed shuttle and dying angaran hadn’t been enough evidence, the kett generators, crates, other tech, and actual kett hanging around the cave were a dead giveaway.

With a little bit of subtle shimmying, she managed to crawl out of the tunnel and return to the outside world, climbing into her rover. She rolled her shoulders and sighed heavily. God, she hated kett.

She tapped on her omni-tool. “Kaetus? It’s Ryder. There are kett here already. I count about fifteen. Have a nice setup out here, too. I’ll send you the navpoint.”

Kaetus swore colorfully on the other end. “We’ll meet you there.”

Sara raised her eyebrow at that. They were actually bothering to meet her? And here she thought they couldn’t be bothered doing the dirty work themselves.

It didn’t take long for the Outcast shuttle to land nearby, and Sara was downright shocked when both Sloane and Kaetus stepped out and approached her at the base doors.

“You can actually leave that throne?” said Sara in surprise.

“I cleaned out the kett once and I’ll do it again. These bastards are scum,” said Sloane.

“I still disagree with you being here. Every second you’re outside the port gives the Collective an opening,” said Kaetus.

This was clearly an argument that had been on for a while now.

Sloane fixed her steely, mismatched gaze on Kaetus. “I want the kett gone and I’m not letting anyone else take all the credit.”

“Sloane,” began Kaetus.

Sloane turned her attention to Ryder. “You’re going in with us.”

“No, really? And here I thought I might sit this one out. Take a nap, go for an afternoon stroll,” said Sara.

“Fuck off, Ryder. You said there were fifteen?” said Sloane.

“Mostly Chosen, no Wraiths, no Destined, two Anointed. It’s an open space, not a lot of places to hide. They have an upper balcony, so they have the high ground, but there’s plenty over cover and we have the element of surprise,” said Sara.

Sloane whipped out her assault rifle. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go kill us some kett.”

Sara opened the door and the three of them headed inside ducking behind crates for cover. Her assessment of the fortifications and numbers had been accurate, and happily the kett hadn’t realized they were there yet. Once the other two had gotten their bearings, Sara decided to stop waiting around. A group of four Chosen were hanging around some sort of tech, and Sara launched a Singularity at them. At the same time, Kaetus and Sloane began gunning down the other kett. The Anointed made themselves known, so Sara Lanced one of their shields before Throwing it against a wall. The other Anointed took advantage of her distraction and shot at her. She only just barely managed to avoid the gunfire, but even with her reflexes, it still managed to graze her arm. It was minor and she had medi-gel in her rover, but it still _hurt_. She wasn’t to be deterred, though. She made quick work of the Anointed’s barrier and immediately Lanced it in the head, which quite grossly resulted in its head exploding. After a few more minutes of volleys being exchanged, the kett lay dead, and the trio victorious.

Sloane walked over and shot a dead Chosen in the head for good measure. “Good. Thanks for your help, Ryder. I suppose it’s good to know that you’re not completely useless, even if you are a Nexus lapdog and Kadara’s maid.”

“There’s a compliment in there somewhere,” said Sara.

“Keep this quiet, you hear me? You want your outpost? You better not start spreading it around that there are kett here,” said Sloane.

“And I can’t imagine that it would be very convenient for you,” said Sara.

Sloane stalked over to her, still brandishing her assault rifle, and got in Sara’s face, even as the smaller woman was undeterred. “You listen here, you little shit. People start thinking that kett are about, the port isn’t all that will panic. No one from the Nexus is going to come out here to colonize if they think there’s kett. _You _want to seem stable. _You _fancy yourself some sort of damn janitor out here, so it falls to _you _if there’s kett.”

“Message received, Your Majesty,” said Sara irritably. Her arm throbbed, and admittedly that might have been a major contributor to her attitude.

Sloane curled her lip at her before barking for Kaetus to follow her and stalking out of the cave.


	5. A Night on the Town

Sara was in full blown, pre-date panic mode. What should she wear? How much makeup was enough or too much makeup? What was the dress code for the party? Should she be prepared for a fight? Was this a date or an elaborate plan to sabotage Sloane? Would Reyes have warned her if it was?

Sara was only half-dressed and had barely put her makeup on when her omni-tool pinged a vidcall. She answered it without thinking and came face to face with Vetra.

“Hey, Ryder. How’s Kadara?” asked the turian.

“Oh, hey, Vetra. It’s surprisingly good. Cleaned up the majority of the badlands, scoped out where the lines are drawn in the sand between the Outcasts and Collective—you know how it is,” said Sara.

Vetra leaned it closer to the vidcall. “Well, you’re all done up. What, do you have a hot date tonight or something?”

Sara paled. “Oh god, is it obvious? Is it the makeup? Is it too much? Does it come on too strong? I’m not implying something that I don’t want to imply yet, am I?”

“You _do _have a date?” gaped Vetra, or as much as a turian could.

“Or at least I think it’s a date. I’m going as his plus-one to a party, so I’m pretty sure it’s a date, but I don’t want to make it seem like I’m trying too hard because what if it really isn’t a date and he was just being his normally flirty self and I mean he flirts with most people, right? Oh god, it’s not really a date, is it?” fretted Sara.

“Ryder, calm down. How’d he ask you to go?” asked Vetra patiently.

“Well, he said that Sloane was hosting a party and he had an invite, so would I be his plus-one. I asked if this was him asking me out and he just said that he’d be a perfect gentleman,” said Sara.

“Sounds like a date to me. So, who’s the guy?” asked Vetra.

“If I tell you, you are sworn to secrecy,” said Sara.

“You know I could just get one of my contacts to let me know tomorrow who Sara Ryder went to Sloane’s party with,” pointed out Vetra.

“Just don’t make fun of me. Or tell Scott. Scott will freak out,” said Sara.

“It’s Reyes, isn’t it?” said Vetra flatly.

“Maybe,” said Sara.

“Well, you certainly had enough chemistry,” said Vetra.

Sara bit her lip. “But he seems to get along with everyone. He’s smooth and probably out of my league and—”

“Ryder, you can’t think like that. You’ll drive yourself crazy with ‘what if’s,” said Vetra gently. “Everything will be fine. Just relax and be yourself.”

Sara wasn’t as convinced but tried not to let it show. It was wrong to put this on Vetra to begin with. She plastered on a fake smile that fooled almost everyone. “You’re right. I’m probably being silly. Anyway, how are things on the _Tempest_?”

Vetra groaned. “We’re on Elaaden trying to sort out the mess with the krogan. This planet doesn’t have shade; it’s always facing the sun. Ryder wants to put an outpost here to help reestablish ties with the krogan. If he tries to leave one of us here like he did with you on Kadara, there might be a mutiny.”

Sara laughed. “Well, suddenly my criminal infested rock doesn’t sound so terrible, huh?”

“Don’t remind me. Believe me, I’d rather be on Kadara,” said Vetra.

“I know everyone treats this place as if it’s the ugly stepchild of planets and the Wild West or something, but once things calm down here finally, it’s actually rather nice,” said Sara.

“Or at least the locals are?” said Vetra.

“Not every exile is a violent crazy person,” said Sara.

“I have a fair number of friends who are out there; you don’t need to tell me,” said Vetra.

“It’s just…the longer I stay here, the angrier I get at the Nexus. Everyone here came to Andromeda with the same dream as the rest of us, and the Nexus failed them. Sure, there are some bad eggs among them, but the majority of everything that’s happened here has been from necessity and trying to make the most of a bad situation. If we can establish this outpost, I’m sure we might even be able to bring some people back, or at the very least reestablish real ties with the exiles. We don’t have so many allies right now that I’m willing to just abandon them, even if Tann and the rest are more than happy to,” said Sara.

“I’m glad you’re the one that’s there, Ryder. They could use an advocate. And hope,” said Vetra.

“I don’t know if I’d give myself that much credit, but I’m trying,” said Sara.

“You Ryders never do, yet you’re the ones that are bringing hope to Andromeda right now,” said Vetra.

Sara fiddled with a lock of her hair and glanced at the clock. “If you say so, but on that note, I still have to get dressed and Sloane’s party is supposed to start soon. I’ll talk to you later, Vetra. Stay safe out there.”

“Hang in there, Ryder,” said Vetra, ending the call.

Sara scanned her limited wardrobe, wondering idly just how dressed up she was supposed to be for this, and just how much shit she would get if she really did wear something purple.

\---

It was pleasantly cool, and the sun hadn’t quite set when Sara arrived at Outcast headquarters that night. She’d decided to largely stay within her comfort zone, wearing a pair of white jeans, her favorite grey leather jacket, grey boots, and a lavender top. The only thing even remotely adventurous was that she’d worn her hair down instead of either in a ponytail or bun, leaving it to its usual wavy business. That, and perhaps she’d paid just _slightly _more attention to her makeup than usual.

Loud party music could be heard leaking through the doors as Sara approached the Outcast guard in front of the main entrance. The bouncer was rather intimidating in his way, for his height to the long, jagged scar that ran through his left eye, rendering it sightless.

“Hold up. This is a private event,” said the guard.

“I’m meeting a friend,” said Sara simply.

“Not without an invite,” said the guard as he held up his datapad. “And you’re not on the list.”

Ever one for dramatic timing, Reyes chose that moment to appear and snake his arm around Sara’s waist. “She’s with me. Reyes Vidal.”

The guard glanced at the datapad. “Go on in, then.”

Reyes released his grip but led her inside to where a lively party was underway in the Sloane’s throne room. It was a regular who’s who of Kadara Port, and there were more than a few people dancing or hitting up Umi’s drink station. Sloane relaxed on her throne, glass in hand, and was laughing loudly at some joke one of her posse was telling her. Kaetus, for his part, was lurking in the shadows by the door scowling, his eyes firmly on Sara Ryder as she entered the room with Reyes.

Reyes led her over to a particularly fashionable and wealthy looking angaran woman with lavender and grey skin and brilliant blue eyes. She carried herself with an air of someone who knew more than anyone else in the room and her gaze could see right through a person’s soul.

The angaran spoke with a slow, knowing manner that dripped of hidden secrets and motivations. “Reyes Vidal. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show.”

“Remember what I said about ‘fashionably late’?” said Reyes.

“Shush, introduce me to your companion,” said Keema as she settled her unnerving gaze on Sara.

“Sara Ryder, meet Keema Dohrgun, the angaran representative to Sloane. And a friend,” said Reyes.

“A pleasure Keema. Call me Ryder,” said Sara politely.

“Reyes mentioned your professionalism. I was hoping he’d bring you; you’re all he talks about lately,” said Keema.

“Is that so?” said Sara, raising an eyebrow at Reyes in amusement.

Reyes shot Keema a brief look of betrayal. “Sorry to cut this short, but I need to take care of something.”

Sara looked at him. “Abandoning me already?”

“It won’t take long. There are important players here tonight. You should mingle. Make a good impression,” said Reyes.

“You treat all your dates like this or am I just special?” asked Sara irritably.

“I’ll make it up to you. Promise,” said Reyes.

Sara frowned at his retreating form.

“And there he goes,” said Keema.

“Any idea what he’s up to?” asked Sara.

“It’s better not to worry about what Reyes does. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. He _likes_ you,” said Keema with a wry smile.

“I’ve…gotten that impression,” allowed Sara.

“And he thinks he’s so subtle,” said Keema in amusement.

“So, how do you know Reyes?” asked Sara.

“The only way anyone knows Reyes Vidal—through business. His skills are very valuable in Kadara Port,” said Keema.

“And you’re the angaran representative to Sloane?” asked Sara.

“I provide her with insight into the angaran perspective, given that this _was _until quite recently an angaran port,” said Keema distastefully.

“And she listens to you?” said Sara, keeping the surprise out of her voice.

“Almost never, but the idea is there at least. She mostly just throws these parties to satiate my people. It won’t last forever, though,” said Keema.

“I hope you don’t judge all humans on Sloane. We’re not all terrible, I promise,” said Sara.

“I judge individuals, not groups. You, for example, I like,” said Keema.

“Thank you,” said Sara, a little flattered.

“I won’t keep you, Ryder. You should go mingle and enjoy the party,” said Keema.

“All right. It was nice to meet you, Keema,” said Sara politely.

“Likewise,” said Keema. “We should do lunch sometime. Make Reyes properly squirm.”

Sara laughed lightly and agreed before melting into the crowd. She’d been properly abandoned and was more than a little peeved about it. Keema was clearly one of Reyes’ better friends and, most likely, colleagues. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Reyes had been talking about her to Keema or that Keema was very much under the impression that Reyes liked her. But even that still left Sara feeling a little uneasy and a little used. He’d bothered to ask her here on the pretense of a date, but then he’d up and left her, undoubtedly, to go do some sort of snooping on Sloane for some nefarious reason. Sara felt a little used and wondered if her presence merely served as a distraction. Even as she made her way to the bar, she could feel the many eyes on her, and she’d noticed Kaetus watching her like a hawk from the entrance.

Umi looked about as happy to be there as Sara was when she approached the bar.

“Hey Umi,” began Sara.

“Before I give you anything, what’s the name of my bar?” asked Umi.

Sara blinked at her. “Kralla’s Song. Why?”

“If you can’t remember that, you’re too drunk to be here. Though you’re a human biotic, yeah? This swill doesn’t seem to affect you guys as much as the rest,” said Umi.

“Faster metabolism,” confirmed Sara.

Umi studied her. “Then maybe you’d like to try something new I’ve been brewing. It’s half batarian shard wine, half ryncol. You up for it?”

Sara looked horrified. “I don’t think I’d manage to get home in one piece if I attempted that but thank you for the offer.”

“Whiskey neat it is,” said Umi as she slid the glass over to her. “At least you have _some_ common sense.” 

Sara thanked her and returned to the crowd, finding no one she knew to talk to. She made her way over to acknowledge the host, but Sloane had merely sneered at her and said something about her being a freeloading maid, so Sara had thanked Her Majesty for the free drinks and returned to the room to find an empty spot of wall and wait.

She’s been there for half an hour and finished her drink when she finally gave up waiting. Reyes clearly wasn’t coming back, and she wanted to properly give him a piece of her mind before leaving.

She found him in a deserted supply room rummaging around and muttering to himself. “Damn it. Why can’t the serial numbers be in the same spot?”

Sara was annoyed. She stood in the doorway, hands on her hips before tossing up her hands and approaching him. “‘Take the night off. Come out for a drink’. Should’ve known you were up to something.”

Reyes immediately straightened, looking properly ashamed. “Ryder! It’s not what it looks like.”

Sara fixed him with the Alec Ryder glare. “So, you _didn’t_ use me as a distraction to go through Sloane’s stuff?”

There was a pause before Reyes said, “Okay, yes. But it’s for both our benefit. I promise.”

He barely finished before Sara said, “You’ve been making a _lot _of promises.”

There was a noise down the hall, not unlike someone walking towards them.

“Shit—someone’s coming. We need a distraction,” said Reyes.

Maybe it was the whiskey. Maybe it was that his cologne did funny things to her inhibitions. Maybe it was that Kadara’s utter lack of inhibitions was rubbing off on her. But in that moment, the only distraction Sara could think of was to kiss him, and that’s what she did. She grabbed his face, reached up on her toes, and kissed him. Reyes barely hesitated a second before sliding his hands on her waist and kissing her back.

The guard chose that moment to enter the storeroom, only to find a couple clearly taking advantage of the relative privacy. The guard cleared her throat, muttered an apology, and made a hasty retreat.

Reyes broke the kiss, albeit reluctantly, glanced around Sara at the empty door, and looked down at her. “I think we’re in the clear.”

Sara’s head was still spinning, but she had time now to be properly embarrassed by her conduct, even if the result had been…really nice. He still had his hands firmly on her waist, his thumbs tracing little, distracting circles as she held her. “It was, um, just a distraction.”

Reyes shot her a smile that told her he knew it was a lie before releasing her and climbing a small ladder to a box and retrieving a bottle of whiskey, gesturing triumphantly with it. “Finally! Here it is!”

“That’s what this was all about? _Whiskey_?” said Sara as he hopped down.

Reyes cradled the bottle like a baby. “The only bottle of Mount Milgrom in Andromeda. Triple-distilled and six hundred and forty-five years old. This isn’t whiskey—it’s treasure.”

“I hope you’re at least planning on sharing that,” said Sara flatly.

Reyes shot her a charming smile. “We’ll see. Let’s get out of here.”

With that, he grabbed her hand and took off running, leaving both the party and Outcast headquarters behind.

Reyes led her out to the top of the city and sat them town on the top of a tower that had a beautiful view of both the port and the badlands beyond. The sun was only just setting, with a pleasant twilight glow between the mountains and the neon lights of the city. They sat next to each other chatting lightly as they passed the treasured whiskey between them.

This had clearly been his plan all along.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it? I sometimes forget,” said Reyes. He turned from the scenery to the other beautiful view, the lights from the city making her eyes twinkle and the last rays of sunlight bringing out the blonde highlights in her hair. “Is Andromeda everything you hoped it would be?”

It was a loaded question, but they were well beyond the point where it was invasive or overstepping.

“It’s…been hard. I lost my father the first day we arrived in Heleus and my brother’s the human Pathfinder now. The Nexus is a mess, colonization isn’t going smoothly, and the kett pose a major problem. But there was nothing left for me in the Milky Way, and here every day is an adventure. Every new planet we visit, every new culture and site we discover is new and exciting. Even my nights off are interesting,” said Sara. She looked at him. “What about you? Why’d you come here, Reyes?”

Reyes looked out at the scenery instead of her, finding it easier to tell the void than another person, especially her. He never wanted to see the disappointment in her eyes. “To be someone.”

“You’re someone to me,” came her quiet reply.

Reyes looked at her then, an unfamiliar warmth suffusing him as he took in her gentle smile. He rested his hand on her cheek, marveling at how soft her skin was, and said, “I’m starting to think that kiss was more than just a distraction.”

“Maybe it was,” Sara breathed, her heart already beating rapidly in anticipation.

Reyes bent down and kissed her, properly this time. If the kiss they’d shared in the storage room had been a tentative, chaste thing, this was anything but. This was a declaration of intent and the result of weeks of longing and desire. Whatever Reyes had imagined this would be like, this was significantly better. It was the best kiss he’d had since coming to Andromeda by far, and the best kiss he could even remember having. A lingering voice whispered that he shouldn’t be doing this, that Sara would only end up being hurt by his lies, but he silenced it. It was the first feeling of true happiness either had felt since arriving in Andromeda, and Reyes wanted to savor it while it lasted.

Sara was on cloud nine. She’d had her share of boyfriends—two or so—back in the Milky Way, but none of them had kissed like this. No other kiss had made her feel quite this good or made her toes curl quite like this. No, Reyes was by far the best kisser she’d found herself involved with, and he definitely had more of a flare for the dramatic and sense of romantic ambiance than the others. He was certainly an enigma and had more than a few secrets, but he never judged and always supported her. She never felt belittled or like she was in the way. For all his faults, Reyes made her feel wanted and important, and there was certainly something to be said for that.

As the kiss grew more intense, Reyes slid his hands down her arms, intent on reaching her waist so that he could pull her closer. But instead of the contented sigh or soft whimper she’d been making, and which delighted him, Sara winced and recoiled. Reyes immediately pulled back and fixed her with a look of concern. “Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”

Sara’s mind was foggy to say the least, the pain in her arm providing the source of clarity. She shook her head. “No, sorry, my arm’s just a little sore from the other day. Okay, a lot sore. It’s still healing.”

“What happened?” asked Reyes, worry coloring his features and taking his mind off of other pursuits for the time being.

Sara shrugged. “An Anointed blew through my shields and I didn’t dodge fast enough. I put medi-gel on it, but it’s still healing.”

“An Anointed? When were you fighting kett? And by yourself?” asked Reyes. He knew she was more than capable and regularly put herself in dangerous situations, but he didn’t like the idea of her in danger. At all. Even a little bit.

“I wasn’t by myself. Sloane and Kaetus were there. Kaetus had a suspicion that there was a pocket of kett up near Sulfur Springs, so I checked it out and sure enough there were about fifteen of them, so the three of us cleared them out,” explained Sara.

A thousand thoughts and ideas flitted through Reyes’ mind as the implications of her words fully hit him, but he chose to focus on the most immediate concern. He gently tilted her chin up so that she was looking up at him. “You need to be more careful, Sara.”

“I’m plenty careful. This was the only time I’ve gotten hurt and it was really only minor. You know I can defend myself,” said Sara.

“That doesn’t stop me from worrying,” said Reyes.

“You don’t strike me as a worrier,” said Sara.

“I hide it well, then,” said Reyes.

“Is that all you’re hiding?” asked Sara.

It was the dreaded question, and the one Reyes wanted desperately to lie about. But as easily as lying came to him, he didn’t want to lie to her. Sara Ryder deserved the truth and he _wanted_ her to know everything, wanted her to keep looking at him like that even after she knew. But he was also terrified of how the truth would change things and cared far too much about her good opinion to sacrifice that just yet.

He settled for a partial truth. “No, but I’ll tell you in time.”

Perhaps encouraged by his honesty, Sara looped her arms around his neck and fixed him with a flirty smile, her eyes glittering with both mischief and the neon lights around them. “You’re an enigma, I’ll grant you that, Reyes Vidal. And I may be bad with computers, but I’ve always been very good at chess and problem solving, so I’ll hack your encryption, mark my words.”

Reyes couldn’t help but smile at that. “You’ll hack my encryption, huh? And here I thought that _I _had a tendency to say cheesy things.”

Sara’s face turned rather pink and she looked adorably embarrassed. “Yes, well, of the two of us, you’re the smooth one, not me. It’s also been well over six hundred years since I’ve done this, so I’m extremely out of practice.”

“Then I’ll just have to be your teacher. Something tells me you were always a good student,” said Reyes.

“Well, my teachers always did say that I was a pleasure to have in class,” said Sara coquettishly.

Reyes chuckled and pulled her in for a searing kiss.

They remained on that roof, talking, kissing, and finishing off that treasured bottle of whiskey. Despite how it began, it had turned into a wonderful evening. Reyes walked her home once the evening had decidedly turned into night and the streets of Kadara Port stopped being safe even for someone with powerful biotics.

“I’d invite you in for coffee, but I really would mean the beverage, and I know that people like you think it’s code for something else,” said Sara.

“I’m _wounded_, Sara,” said Reyes, miming clutching his heart dramatically.

“Oh, as if you haven’t quite literally charmed the pants off of almost everyone you’ve ever met?” said Sara expectantly.

“Not _everyone_; I do have standards. Significantly higher standards now that I’ve met you,” said Reyes.

Sara rolled her eyes and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “Maybe, but these particular pants are staying on for the time being.”

“I’m a patient man,” said Reyes.

“And an undercaffeinated one,” said Sara.

“You’re terrible,” said Reyes.

“What can I say? I’m learning from the best,” said Sara.

Reyes pulled her in for a long, lingering kiss. He’d never grow tired of kissing her. “Goodnight, Sara.”

\--- 

Reyes was pacing and Keema found this highly amusing.

“I need to tell her. I know I need to tell her, but it will be a disaster when I do,” said Reyes.

Keema took a long draw of her cigar. “Your Sara Ryder is a lovely little thing. Smart too. If you wait too long, she might just figure it out and save you the trouble.”

Reyes looked ill at the very thought. “She’ll never forgive me.”

Keema shrugged. “We got lunch the other day. She seemed a reasonable, nonjudgmental sort. She may understand more than you realize.”

Reyes knew that Keema and Sara had gotten lunch. He also knew that the two of them were liable to team up against him in the future, but he’d grudgingly accepted it. After all, there were far worse things than your best friend and your girlfriend getting along. Sara had seamlessly inserted herself into his world, and even though they’d only been together a short while, Reyes already found that losing her would be beyond devastating.

Reyes was still pacing. “It’s not just her approval that I’m worried about. You’ve seen what Sloane does to people she suspects of knowing my identity. She already doesn’t like Sara, even more so now that word has gotten out about the kett. If Sloane ever has any inkling that Sara knows…”

“She’ll find out eventually, Reyes. It will be far better if it comes from you and not a third party,” said Keema.

Reyes groaned in frustration.

“Does she know that you’re having her protected?” asked Keema.

“If she does, she hasn’t said anything,” said Reyes.

Keema nodded. “I still think you should tell her. If you want her to trust you, then you need to show her that she can.”

“I will, just…once Sloane is out of the picture. I don’t want her to be in any more danger than she already is,” said Reyes.

“You’re playing with fire. Don’t be surprised when you get burned,” said Keema.

\---

Kaetus eyed Sara Ryder as she met with one of the local mods merchants about locating a lost shipment in the badlands. He didn’t like her, and he didn’t trust her. Sara Ryder had been a thorn in the Outcasts’ side since she’d arrived with the Pathfinder team months ago, and she’d remained a pain in the ass the whole time she’d been on Kadara. But now? Now she was becoming more than just an annoyance. No, now Kadara’s Maid and the Nexus Lapdog, as Sloane often called her, was becoming a problem. Kaetus wasn’t stupid; he knew who had blabbed about the kett being back on Kadara. And given that it was the Collective who was spreading that the kett were back and Sara Ryder had gotten rid of them, Kaetus found it difficult to believe that she wasn’t already allying with the upstarts. From where Kaetus stood, it looked an awful lot like Sara had allied herself with the Collective and taken up with some third-rate independent smuggler. Well, Vidal had always been a sucker for a pretty face. Everyone knew that, so that was hardly surprising. It would be difficult to leverage Vidal against her, especially given how slippery he was. But Ryder herself? If she’d allied with the Collective, then she might have even met the Charlatan. And if she had? Well, then she might be more than just a problem.

One thing was certain: something had to be done about her, and soon.


	6. Boundless Optimism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly NSFW

Sara reclined on her couch, propped up against Reyes’ side as she read over assessment reports from the Nexus and he read over something for his own work, presumably something related to smuggling, with his arm draped around her, keeping her close. It was a comfortable arrangement, much like their relationship in general. True, he typically operated out of the back room of Tartarus, but he’d increasingly been spending his time with her in her apartment. They’d relax, do work, have dinner, maybe watch a vid—it was all very normal and domestic. Sara had to admit that she was falling hard and fast for her enigmatic smuggler. She’d even managed to squeeze a few details out of him, like where he was from and what his family had been like. That had satisfied a decent amount of her curiosity, but she still had so many questions. It was difficult for him to open up, she knew, and even when he did, she could tell how foreign the vulnerability was. He’d spent most of his life putting up walls around himself and hiding behind his charm and a smile, and while that worked with most people, Sara could see his façade for what it was, and they both knew that she deserved the truth. He was trying, he really was, and by all accounts, he was making progress. She made him want to be a better man and made him want to earn the affection she showed him. These weeks that he’d spent with her had been nothing short of wonderful, and Reyes knew that he’d do everything in his power to make sure that it remained that way.

Sara made an annoyed little grunt beside him, and Reyes pressed a kiss into her hair before asking what was wrong.

“Tann’s being an ass. Scott did an interview with some reporter saying that people should give Kadara a chance since the exiles were once part of the Nexus and it was the Nexus that failed them, not the other way around. Tann responded by making an announcement that everyone is to stay away from Kadara at all costs and under no circumstances are any Nexus personnel to interact with exiles,” explained Sara grumpily.

“No interaction, hmm?” said Reyes, his low voice practically a purr as he rained little kisses down her neck.

Sara was finding it very difficult to engage in meaningful conversation when he did that. She absolutely melted when he kissed her neck like that. And he knew it. “No…and now Scott’s getting yelled at for his interview and the reporter got—mmm—locked up.”

“Censorship? How unsporting,” said Reyes as his arm around her tightened and his kisses on her neck deepened.

Sara’s frustration with the Nexus was utterly forgotten as she lost herself in his touch and the growing warmth that spread through her. She sighed happily and Reyes turned his attention from her neck to her lips. It was a scorching kiss, and one that did its job of fully distracting Sara from the frustrations of her work. She set down her datapad and shifted on the couch so she that she could properly wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him in earnest. Reyes happily pulled her onto his lap, twisting one hand into her hair and letting another wander up and down her back. The kiss grew intense, as many of them had grown lately, with neither being fully satisfied with _just _kissing anymore.

Sara was resisting the urge to grind herself against him, knowing full well what was pressed against her at the moment, when her omni-tool pinged an urgent call. She reluctantly broke the kiss and Reyes buried his face in her neck with a groan.

She was still breathing heavily when she answered it. “What _is _it, Scott?”

“We’re en route to Kadara. Should be on the ground within the hour. Urgent business on multiple fronts. Whatever you do, do _not _go—Suvi, where’s the navpoint?” said Scott hurriedly. There was a pause before he said, “The northern hills beyond the Sulfur Springs, it looks like. Do _not _go out there right now, Sara.”

“What the _fuck _are you talking about?” asked Sara irritably.

“Don’t freak out. Ruth Bekker is what I’m talking about. She’s got some contagious disease that’s lethal to all Milky Way species—TH something, I don’t know. We’re not sure about the angara, but if she’s reached Stage 3, and we think she probably has by now, then she’s incredibly contagious. Her shuttle’s at that navpoint and under no circumstances should you go out there right now,” explained Scott hurriedly.

“_Great_, you know I was really wondering when the apocalyptic pandemic was going to ruin my day,” said Sara.

Reyes chuckled.

“We should be there within the hour. Anything I should know before I drive like a bat out of hell through the badlands?” asked Scott.

“Well, the Outcasts are still going to shoot at you, but the Collective has largely stopped attacking me, so take from that what you will. I’m not sure that extends to you or if I just happened to not run into as many Collective agents or something but know that you’re probably going to get shot at by someone,” said Sara.

“Must be a Tuesday,” said Scott.

“Try not to catch anything, okay? You’re a terrible sick person,” said Sara.

Scott snorted. “Yeah, okay. Assuming I don’t die or get shot, see you soon. Stay on comms. I may need you and your fancy recon map to help me out here.”

Sara sighed heavily and grumbled under her breath, “There go my plans for the evening.”

“Since when do you have plans, never mind a social life?” scoffed Scott.

As Sara extricated herself from both a disappointed Reyes and the couch, she could just barely hear Vetra saying something on the other end.

“She’s got a _what_?” exclaimed Scott, making Sara wince.

Vetra said something else that Sara couldn’t hear.

“Sara Alecia Ryder, you have a _boyfriend_? Since _when_? How did I not know about this?” said Scott

Sara sighed heavily as Reyes laughed. “Yes, I’ve got a boyfriend.”

“Since when? Who the fuck are you even dating?” asked Scott.

Vetra said something else.

“_Vidal_? The Resistance contact?! Sara, I know we teased you about flirting with him and you said he was hot, but he’s a smuggler! Just because you think his voice is sexy—” began Scott.

Sara could feel her face burning. “Gah, I get the picture! You don’t need to announce that!”

Reyes wore a shit-eating grin. “So, it’s the accent, is it?”

“Oh, hush. As if your ego needed it,” said Sara, her face still bright pink.

“Is he _there_? Oh my god, Sara, was I _interrupting_?” said Scott in horror.

“Mind out of the gutter, good god. And I told you that in confidence, Vetra!” said Sara.

Vetra got in on the call. “Are you kidding? You didn’t even need to tell me; half of Kadara already knows.”

Sara groaned.

“And gossip travels faster through the _Tempest_ than a barracks. Pathfinder’s the only one who didn’t know,” said Vetra.

“_Great_,” said Sara.

“Incidentally, if Vidal ever hurts you, Cora and Drack both have plans for how to avenge your honor. Also, if Jaal asks you why you prefer ‘bad boys’, blame Cora. Oh, and Peebee wants details,” said Vetra.

“I hate all of you,” said Sara.

Reyes was practically shaking with silent laughter.

“Also, be warned that Liam’s being an ass about it, so look out for that,” said Vetra. 

“Liam? Why would he care?” asked Scott.

“You blind? He was drooling all over Ryder when she was here,” said Vetra.

“He _what_?” said Scott.

Reyes stopped laughing.

“Nothing ever happened, obviously, and I ignored it anyway,” said Sara flippantly.

“Forgive me, but it didn’t exactly end well the last time one of my friends paid that kind of attention to you,” said Scott.

“Will you stop bringing that up?” hissed Sara.

“I’m just saying, you need to be careful,” said Scott.

“Oh my god, I’m not even dating this guy!” exclaimed Sara.

“No, you’re dating a smuggler. I know you already loved _Star Wars _when Mom used to make us watch those old vids, but—” began Scott.

“I am not having this conversation with you,” said Sara.

“If Tann ever finds out,” began Scott.

“The only way Tann will find out is if one of you blab to him, and if you do that, you are dead to me, Scott,” said Sara.

“He’ll be furious, Sara,” said Scott.

“What’s he going to do? Exile me to Kadara?” scoffed Sara.

“To make an example of you? Sure. Or reassign you to Voeld or something,” said Scott.

“Worry more about your damn pandemic than my love life, okay? I’m a big girl. I can handle myself,” said Sara.

“All evidence to the contrary,” said Scott.

“Are you seriously going to hold that over me forever?” snapped Sara.

“I don’t know if it’s that you’re naïve, so you don’t notice when people lie to you, or you’re just gullible, or what, but—” began Scott.

“Fuck off, Scott,” said Sara.

“You have a history of bad judgment in that department,” summarized Scott.

“I can and will navigate you into enemy territory,” said Sara bluntly.

Scott sighed, partly in frustration and partly because he was tired. “Look, Sara, just…be careful, okay?”

“I’m always careful,” said Sara.

“If you say so,” replied Scott, clearly resigned to whatever Sara was doing.

“Approaching the LZ,” said Kallo.

Scott snapped into Pathfinder mode. “All right, Sara we’re here. I’ll call you when we get to the badlands.”

“Sounds good,” said Sara, ending the call.

Reyes raised an eyebrow at her.

“He worries,” supplied Sara.

“So, Kosta has a crush?” said Reyes, partly teasing, partly territorial.

Sara rolled her eyes dramatically at him before returning her attention to her recon map. “If I wanted someone to follow me around, blindly agreeing to everything I say, getting pissed when I don’t agree with his opinion, and hanging on my every word, I would get a dog. It was reaching the point of becoming more than awkward and I was dreading having to actually address it when Scott decided to leave me here. His timing couldn’t have been better.”

Reyes sidled up behind her and slipped his arms around her, pulling her back flush against him. “I shouldn’t be worried, then?”

Sara snorted. “About Liam? Not hardly. He’s got the maturity of fifteen-year-old boy. He probably threw a tantrum when Vetra told him that I was dating you.”

“Good,” said Reyes as he pressed a kiss against her temple. “I don’t like sharing.”

“Well, good, because I don’t want to be shared,” said Sara as she relaxed back against him.

There was a pause before Reyes said, “So, you think my voice is sexy, huh?”

Sara groaned. “I’m never living that down, am I?”

“It’s a relief to hear that I was not the only one taken with our first meeting,” said Reyes.

“Was it the shameless display of biotics? Because I wasn’t really sure what came over me there,” said Sara.

Reyes hummed against her neck. “Definitely a contributing factor.”

“Is that how you conduct all your business? Shamelessly flirting your way into a better deal?” asked Sara.

“Not since meeting you,” said Reyes.

“Cute,” said Sara.

“Yes, you are,” said Reyes.

Before Sara could say anything else in reply, a blinking blue light appeared on the map before her and Scott called her over comms. “Okay, Sara, we’re in the Nomad. Where am I going?”

“If you can’t navigate your way out of a paper bag and your driving is this bad, why do we let you drive again?” asked Peebee.

“I’m the Pathfinder,” said Scott simply.

“Your driving is painfully bad,” agreed Sara.

“What is this? Team up on Scott day?” asked Scott.

“Someone’s got to keep your ego in check,” said Cora.

“Hey!” exclaimed Scott.

“You’re about to drive into Outcast territory. Stay on your guard,” said Sara.

“I thought you were supposed to be making nice with the locals,” said Scott.

“I did make nice. With some of them. It’s not my fault that Sloane’s a Grade A bitch,” said Sara.

“Have you made progress with _anyone_?” asked Scott.

“Oh, I’m sorry, do you think you could do better?” asked Sara.

Scott grumbled on the other end of the comms.

“Okay, we’re through. What else?” asked Cora.

“Neutral ground, but there was a sketchy group of exiles who murdered some local angara on Charybdis Point, though they’re gone now. They were a pain. Very holier than thou about their murdering ways, too. You’ll go over a mountain after that, pass through the abandoned town of the aforementioned murdered angara, and hang a left. Should arrive at your navpoint shortly thereafter,” said Sara.

“Sounds like you had fun,” said Cora.

“I can condone a lot out here, but cold-blooded murder over a water filter, I cannot,” said Sara.

“Oh, _good_,” said Scott.

_Approaching the navpoint for Ruth Bekker’s shuttle, Pathfinder_.

“Shit, it looks like she crashed,” said Peebee.

_Footprints are angaran in origin. Scanning them may direct us to where the angaran took Ruth Bekker, Pathfinder_.

There were a few hurried instructions before they hopped in the Nomad again and drove a short way back to a small building crawling with Roekaar. “Well, that figures. Could have mentioned the Roekaar, Sara.”

“There weren’t Roekaar there a few days ago,” said Sara.

Gunfire could be heard in the distance. “Then update your map!”

There was a short battle before Scott and his team headed inside the building and confronted the Roekaar who had Ruth Bekker with a gun pointed to her head. And he had a sample of her blood. The angara were immune to her disease, and the Roekaar planned on using her blood to wipe out all the Milky Way aliens who’d come to Heleus. Scott was faced with a choice: save Ruth or save the vial of blood. He chose to save Ruth, based on how degraded the blood sample was. As the Roekaar ran off, Scott shot him in the back.

“Well, that was a little more exciting than I’d hoped my day would be,” he said.

Cora called Suvi to pick up the stasis pod they’d put Ruth Bekker back into.

“Nothing like a good old threat of cluster-wide pandemic to keep you on your toes,” said Scott.

“You sticking around or heading back out?” asked Sara.

“Got some business to take care of here first. Some crazies tried to kill SAM, among other things,” said Scott.

“They _what_?” said Sara.

“You heard me. But I’m not dealing with that whole mess until tomorrow. Until then, they got any good restaurants up there? I’m starving,” said Scott.

\---

Sara eyed her brother suspiciously as he wolfed down the plate of food in front of him.

“You are being fed on that ship, right?” she asked.

Scott swallowed his food before saying, “Yeah, but it’s all rations and MREs. It feels like forever since I had _real _food. We were only on the Nexus for an hour before shit hit the fan with that contagion and we had to bug out again.”

“Not to side with Lexi on all things or anything, but given all the activity you do, you should consider eating real food more often,” said Sara.

“Trying to, but the universe has different plans,” said Scott in between mouthfuls.

“You’re not taking needless risks, though, right?” said Sara.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I know how you operate, running full tilt into battle with no concern for your own safety,” said Sara.

Scott winced. “Somebody has to, Sara.”

She looked at him expectantly.

He sighed in resignation, knowing that look all too well. “Fine, fine, I get the picture.”

“You’re all I’ve got too, you know. And I worry about you while you’re off being a hero,” said Sara.

“Way to get all mushy on me,” said Scott.

Sara frowned at him.

“No, no, I get it. I just hate it when you’re right,” said Scott tiredly.

“And take some time for yourself. You’re no good to anyone if you’re rundown and exhausted,” said Sara.

“Thanks, _Mom_,” said Scott. There was a long silence before Scott sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Sorry.”

“They’d be proud of you, you know. I know Dad didn’t show it a lot, but…he was proud of us. Proud of you. He knew you’d be an amazing Pathfinder, and he was right,” said Sara as she twirled her glass absently.

“You’re not…upset about that…are you?” asked Scott tentatively.

Sara snorted. “You kidding? I don’t want that pressure. And with all the shit people give you? It’s the thankless job to end all thankless jobs.”

“Oh, and you’re getting such accolades here?” scoffed Scott.

“I’m not jealous, Scott. I don’t want your job and you and I both know how bad I am with people. You might have inherited Dad’s tech genius, but I _certainly _inherited his interpersonal skills,” said Sara.

“Eh, you don’t give yourself enough credit,” said Scott.

“I give myself plenty of credit, Scott, but I’ve always been the realistic, pragmatic one of us, and sometimes that means understanding where you fit into the order of things. Your boundless optimism in the face of incredible odds is what gives people hope in these rough times. People are going back into cryo because they’re so scared, but you’re out here risking your life and establishing outposts. I couldn’t do that,” said Sara.

“Boundless optimism?” frowned Scott.

“You know what I mean,” said Sara.

Scott twisted his glass in a similar fashion. “You know Sara, I’m not the one who got recommended for N school before Dad’s fall from grace.”

“Recommended doesn’t mean anything, and I’m pretty sure I was just a statistic after that one adept became a Spectre,” said Sara. “That, and my CO felt he owed me for saving both him and the data after the geth took out my unit.”

“You took to recon like butter on toast or, what’s the old saying? Like white on rye? I’ve seen your maps of Kadara, okay? You are _good _at recon. You should have been an N7,” said Scott.

Sara shook her head. “Like I said, that sort of thing isn’t for me.”

“Okay, now you’re just selling yourself short to make me feel better,” said Scott.

“My original point _was_, idiot, that you’re doing a great job as Pathfinder, our parents would be proud if they were here to see you, and stop being so damn reckless,” said Sara impatiently.

“You really want to talk about reckless when you’ve been running around the badlands by yourself and are dating a smuggler?” said Scott.

“We’ve established that I can take care of myself,” said Sara.

“It’s just…I mean, I’m the one who ends up with broken bones and stuff all the time, but you’re the one who keeps getting wrecked emotionally. I worry about this whole smuggler situation,” said Scott.

“Of all the things to be worried about on Kadara, my boyfriend is not one them,” said Sara bluntly.

“I just…don’t want you to get hurt because you trusted the wrong people. Not to be an ass,” began Scott.

“Too late,” said Sara.

“But…are you _sure _he’s not using you? I can think of a thousand different reasons a guy like that might want your services and connections,” said Scott.

“He’s a lot of things, but he doesn’t need to date me to get my help establishing an outpost,” said Sara.

“The man lies and cheats for a living, Sara,” said Scott.

“At business, sure, but not with…personal matters,” said Sara defensively.

“All I’m saying is, Ian seemed nice enough at first too,” said Scott.

“Didn’t we agree not to mention that again?” said Sara.

“Normally, but in this particular case, no. I don’t want a repeat of Ian, or worse. I mean, jeez, Sara, he’s got more red flags than New Tuchanka. I just don’t want you to get hurt because you trusted the wrong people,” said Scott.

Sara shook her head. “He’s not like that, Scott. Trust me, it’s not the same.”

Scott studied her for a long moment before shaking his head. “All right, if you say so. But let it be known that I warned you.”

“Warning noted and promptly ignored,” said Sara.

Scott rolled his eyes.

“So, how long are you staying for?” asked Sara, firmly changing the topic.

“Not terribly long, I’m afraid. Like I told you earlier, there’s that business with the hackers who tried to take down SAM, then Drack needs me to track down some lowlifes that might be trying to fuck over the krogan, and then I’m supposed to buy some seriously hard liquor for Kesh,” said Scott.

“Not long at all. If you need help on the booze front, I know a guy. Well, no that’s a lie. Reyes knows people and he can tell me,” said Sara.

“Well, I mean, he does operate out of a seedy nightclub,” said Scott.

“Hey, hey, the _private room _of a seedy nightclub,” said Sara.

“My apologies, you’re right, that _is _a totally different thing,” said Scott.

Sara rolled her eyes. “So, how goes the quest for arks?”

“Well, found the salarian ark. Keep finding pieces of the turian ark so that’s…bad. And Cora thinks she’s got a lead on the asari one,” said Scott.

“We really were lucky to make it here in one piece,” said Sara.

“No kidding. And you almost didn’t make it out of cryo,” said Scott.

“Yeah,” said Sara.

There was a comfortable silence before Scott said, “You know? I feel good about our chances.”

Sara looked at him.

“I mean, think about it. We’ve bested the Archon at every turn, we’ve established outposts on two worlds with two more in the works, assuming I can keep parlaying with the krogan, and things are going well between us and the angara. You’re restoring order to an otherwise lawless frontier, we’re making planets viable that haven’t been for ages, and we’re tracking down arks. Has it been smooth sailing? Not by a longshot, but we’ll get there,” said Scott.

“And there’s that boundless optimism,” said Sara.

\---

“Not yet. The lapdog might still be of use,” said Sloane.

Kaetus’s mandibles flared. “Sloane, the Collective has orders that Ryder isn’t to be harmed. The Collective is _protecting _her. She’s become a threat.”

Sloane scrolled through the display in front of her, mulling over the turian’s words. They were the only ones in the throne room now, given that Kaetus was the only one she trusted anymore. “They also might be hoping that we’d intercept the transmission and will act against her.”

“They’re not that advanced,” said Kaetus.

“She’s a bitch and she’s a pain in the ass for our boys in the badlands, but business is booming since she’s started sweeping up the upstarts in the port. She brings stability, and stability is good for business,” said Sloane.

“She could be plotting against you with the Collective,” said Kaetus.

“Ryder will never side with them. The Charlatan’s a faceless murderer and Sara Ryder will never ally with something like that. Not enough of a spine. Women like her have never broken a rule in their life and clutch their pearls at the very idea. She’ll never ally with them,” reasoned Sloane.

“She’s still a threat,” said Kaetus.

Sloane weighed her options, knowing that Ryder was helping her stay in power, but also knowing that this same woman could be her undoing. “See what Ryder does with the information. If the Collective really is trying to get her on their side, the Charlatan might even show themselves.”

“You think she’ll find out who they are?” said Kaetus, enjoying where Sloane was going with this.

“I think that she’s the type to court transparency, and the Charlatan and their Collective upstarts just might be stupid enough to reveal their hand to her. And when they do…” said Sloane.

“We’ll take her away from them,” finished Kaetus.

Sloane smiled at him, her mismatched eyes gleaming in the dim lighting of the throne room.


	7. Charade's End

There was no way, Sara mused, that baryte was going to be the Next Big Thing in Andromeda. It had minimal usefulness and was difficult enough to mine to make it cost prohibitive. Still, she’d felt bad for the surveyor who’d lost his life looking for the stuff in the extensive cave system in Draullir. At least he’d only fallen to his death as opposed to being murdered. If her estimates were correct, and they usually were, the Collective’s headquarters was supposed to be somewhere out in these caves, and she seriously doubted that they would take kindly to visitors.

Sara’s sense of direction was typically pretty good, but these caves had a way of getting you turned around, or so she discovered when she came face to face with a massive metal door guarded by several Collective agents that _definitely _was not where she’d thought it’d be.

As the guards all drew their weapons on her, an asari woman stepped forward and waved them down. “Stop, you idiots. That’s Sara Ryder.”

The Collective agents all lowered their weapons.

“Command says you’re an ally. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the boss had a soft spot for you,” said the asari.

Sara was just quietly glad that she had been right, and they really _hadn’t _been attacking her lately. She wondered why? Who in the world had issued an order not to attack her?

“I’ll admit, it’s nice not to have you guys shoot at me,” said Sara.

The asari grunted. “You’ll want to speak to Crux. She’s inside.”

Curiosity got the better of her, and so Sara followed the Collective agents inside.

The Collective, Sara realized, was _far _from the hubristic group of upstarts that Sloane had painted them to be. Oh no. Not with _this _base. The Collective base was, in a word, huge. It took up the greater part of a massive underground cavern, had a number of sizable buildings and barracks, an adhi domestication center, gardens, a water purification center, and even a jail. They had a fantastic set up there in Draullir—even better than the Outcasts had in the port—and it was immediately apparent to Sara that everyone had been underestimating them.

Sara was in awe as she looked around on her way to the main building.

“Crux is in her office. Don’t touch anything,” said the asari before wandering off.

Sara headed up the stairs past a number of shockingly friendly angara, a salarian who didn’t want her touching some broken button on a control panel, and a turian who asked her if she needed her rifle cleaned before realizing who she was, at which point he politely welcomed her to the base and wandered off. It was utterly bizarre to her that these people were not only criminals, but criminals who had been trying to kill her not long ago.

The main office was located at the very top of the main building, and the woman named Crux was sitting behind a desk on a terminal. She had shoulder length auburn hair, warm brown eyes, and was speaking with a crisp British accent over comms.

Upon finishing the order she was issuing, Crux stood from her desk and walked over to shake Ryder’s hand. “A pleasure, Ryder. I’d heard word that you’d found us and might be stopping by.”

“Oh?” said Sara in surprise. 

“From the boss directly. ‘Sara Ryder is an ally and not to be harmed.’ Must be quite the change,” said Crux.

“I like the Collective a lot more when you’re not actively trying to kill me,” agreed Sara.

“We’re not monsters, Ryder, but the Outcasts have mismanaged Kadara and her people for too long,” said Crux.

“I can’t exactly disagree with you there,” said Sara.

“I wonder…” said Crux pensively. “You might be able to help me with something, if you wouldn’t mind overmuch.”

“What did you have in mind?” asked Sara.

“Someone’s been falsifying the Charlatan’s orders and issuing their own. The boss put me in charge of tracking them down, but I’ve no luck so far in questioning my people,” said Crux.

“And you think they’ll talk to me?” said Sara.

“You’re new. It’s not unreasonable that you’d want to get to know your new allies. They’ll have been out in the Sulfur Springs recently and we’ve narrowed down the footprints at the scene to being either asari or human. The Charlatan said you were good with this sort of thing; you should have much better luck than I did. Just be discreet,” said Crux.

Sara blinked at Crux, not entirely certain that she’d heard correctly. “The Charlatan said what about me?”

“That you were a recon specialist of some talent, complete with a map of where we are. Given that, it was fairly inevitable that you’d show up here eventually. The Charlatan also mentioned an apparent talent for chess, and it’s your problem-solving skills and strategic mind that I’m appealing to at the moment. Your apparent fondness for purple notwithstanding,” said Crux. It had been a long conversation and the Charlatan had said a great many things about Ryder, the least of which being all of this.

Sara nodded through the roaring in her ears. Everything felt numb as the implication of her words fully hit her. There was a very short list of people who knew any of that. “I’ll start interviewing potential suspects.”

“Thank you, Ryder. If you have any questions, I’ll be here,” said Crux.

Sara acknowledged the other woman before leaving the office for the stairwell, leaning heavily on the railing as she stared off into the cavern unseeingly.

_He lied. _

Surely there was a perfectly _rational_ explanation for all this. Surely it wasn’t as bad as she thought. Yes, there had to be a perfectly rational explanation for everything. At the very least, she should hear him about before jumping to conclusions.

Sara took a deep breath and decided to put all thoughts of the Charlatan from her mind as she searched for the imposter.

Suspect Number One was Lynx, the asari woman who’d met her at the door. Lynx was a little bent out of shape, true, but perfectly nice, if tired, when Sara spoke to her. In retrospect, being trapped down in a cave for weeks on end attending to a water filtration system would make anyone cranky, but not cranky enough to defy orders from command. And given that her scanner showed levels of sulfur consistent with working on a water filtration system, Lynx was ruled out.

That left a woman named Dorado, who was working over at the adhi domestication pens.

“Does domesticating adhi actually work?” asked Sara.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” snapped Dorado.

Sara looked at her.

The other woman rubbed her forehead. “Sorry, I’m on the sixteenth hour of my shift and I hate these stupid adhi.”

“That would make anyone a little short,” said Sara.

Dorado glared at her. “You do what the Charlatan orders or you don’t do anything. Any idiot knows that.”

“Even you?” said Sara. No one had ever accused her of being adept at subterfuge, or subtlety for that matter. If the Charlatan knew enough to blab about her love for purple, he knew her well enough to know this too.

“_Excuse _me? What are you implying?” said Dorado, though the panic was clear in her eyes. Sara’s omni-tool registered the spike in heartrate.

“Ever thought of changing the boss’s orders? Making fudging them a bit so that you leave this drafty old cave and go to, say, Sulfur Springs?” said Sara.

Dorado bolted, shoving over a stack of crates so that they should have hit Sara.

“Hey! Get back here!” called Sara as she used her biotics to stop the crates and settle them back down. She gave chase to Dorado, who was far more familiar with the terrain.

But Dorado hadn’t counted on biotics. Sara threw the other woman into Stasis and called up Crux.

“Crux? It’s Ryder. I found your Charlatan’s charlatan,” said Sara.

“You’ve been waiting to use that line. Who is it?” asked Crux.

“Dorado. I’ve got her in Stasis if you’d like to question her or…whatever it is you do with people,” said Sara.

A minute or so later, Crux and two guards appeared and took Dorado away towards the holding cells.

“Thank you, Ryder. The Charlatan was right about you,” said Crux.

“I’m just doing my part. It was nice to meet you,” said Sara.

“Likewise. I look forward to working together in the future,” said Crux with a polite nod before heading back to her compound.

With one last glance around, Sara headed back to the port.

She needed to have a chat with Reyes.

\---

The downside to the long drive back to Kadara Port was that it gave Sara entirely too long to dwell on things. Now every conversation, every dropped hint, and every action screamed of hidden meaning. How could she have been so stupid as to not notice? How had she fallen for this _twice_ now? Was she really just this stupid and gullible? How pathetic was she that she just fell for the first guy with a charming smile who claimed to like her? Scott had been right to be worried. Leave it to her twin to know her better than she knew herself.

Sara didn’t bother to message him beforehand or ping his omni-tool as she stalked into Tartarus fresh from the badlands. She briefly informed her client of the baryte-related incident before heading upstairs to the private room. She didn’t bother to ask permission before using her omni-tool to open the door and head inside.

Reyes looked up from his datapad, registered her murderous expression, and immediately determined that this would not end well for him. He could think of only one thing he had done that would warrant the utter fury she radiated, and he really, truly hoped he was wrong about it.

He pretended to ignore it. “Sara, there you are. Did you find your missing baryte miner or whoever it was?”

“You lied to me,” said Sara, her tone brooked no room for argument.

“Did I?” said Reyes. “About what?”

He saw no reason to confess to something he hadn’t been properly accused of yet. If she knew what he thought she did, then let her say the words before he went and made matters worse.

“I suspect you’re already aware that I just came from the Collective base in Draullir, so I’ll spare you the details that Crux has undoubtedly already given you, but you can imagine my surprise when she informed me not only that the Charlatan had known about my recon map in my _apartment_, my chess skills, that to my knowledge I’ve only briefly mentioned to Scott, Liam, and _you_, and even better, my trust issues and love of purple. Now, my brother clearly is not the fucking Charlatan, so I _wonder_ who the guilty party could be? It’s certainly not _Liam _who’s going around giving out my personal information to his officers,” fumed Sara. She had taken to pacing in front of the couches and was about one smart comment away from destroying the entire place with a Shockwave.

Reyes felt sick. He was trying to think of a _worse _way this could have happened, and he was certain there was one, but it was escaping him at the moment. His mind reeled with everything he could say in his defense, all the ways he could try and make amends, struggling to find a story that would satisfy her and quell her anger. Nothing came to mind.

He had to settle for the truth.

“I’m sorry, Sara. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want to put you in any more danger than you already were. And after you’d told me everything that had happened back in the Milky Way…I liked the way you looked at me, and I was afraid that would change if you knew,” admitted Reyes, praying she would understand.

“So, you let me sit there and tell you everything that happened to me with Ian and your grand takeaway from that was ‘let’s lie to her about my intentions’?” seethed Sara.

“That’s not what I—” began Reyes, but it was already too late.

“Every single friend of mine warned me about you. Every single fucking one of them was so convinced that you were a liar, and a cheat, and a murderer and that this was a bad idea, and I _defended _you. I brushed it all off because I thought you were different, but I really am just the _worst _judge of character, aren’t I? _‘You make me want to be a matter man’_. You fed me your clever lines and charming words and I just swallowed it, didn’t I? You must think I’m really stupid,” she ranted.

“Sara, if you just let me explain,” he began.

“You used me!” she cried, angry tears welling in her eyes. “You used me for my connections and that stupid fucking outpost! You had me confront your ex, even! And what really gets me is that I was establishing the outpost, undoubtedly with Collective support, _before _you went and started this with me, and you didn’t even have to. No, that was just the icing on the cake for you, wasn’t it? Couldn’t just leave well enough, just had to see how far you could take it with the uptight Nexus girl, is that it?”

“I’m not using you, Sara, I love you,” said Reyes finally. He was desperate for her to understand, to see that he’d only lied to her because he was so afraid of losing her. And yet, he was losing her anyway, the very thing he’d been terrified of happening, suddenly a reality for all his efforts to avoid it.

Sara shook her head and shot him one last reproachful glare. “Tell it to someone who cares. If you need to discuss business, send a representative. I understand you’re good at that.”

With that, she turned and left, leaving him alone in the empty room. He dropped back onto the couch and let his head fall back against the wall, dragging his hands over his face. The only sound was the muffled beat of the music in Tartarus, yet not even the thunderous music could drown out her words as they echoed or erase the pain in her eyes as the argument replayed in his mind.


	8. Love and Other Drugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of angst and implied NSFW

Sara was a mess. If Andromeda had chocolate, ice cream, and wine, she would be drowning in all three. Instead, she had to settle for a cup of instant coffee and an overly dramatic action movie. As a general rule, she hated the _Blasto_ series, but they were so bad that they successfully almost distracted her from why she was so miserable in the first place. Almost.

It had been two full days and she’d at least stopped crying now. There had even been a rather prolonged round of sobbing while she sat on the floor of her shower, she was ashamed to admit, like some girl in a bad romance movie her roommate back on Arcturus had loved. She hated that she felt like this. She hated that it was _affecting_ her like this, and she hated that she had allowed herself to get this way in the first place. She should have known better, _especially _after everything with Ian. To have fallen for this same garbage twice now was just insulting. She’d thought Reyes would be different, convinced herself that someone who lied for a living would miraculously be honest with her just because he made her feel special, but she’d been wrong. Oh, had she been wrong.

Now that she knew the truth and there were two whole days in between her and that disastrous trip to Draullir, she could see everything for what it was. Looking back, she could see the calculation behind every interaction. He’d offered himself up as her ally so that he could inform her actions and nudge her in a direction that would favor the Collective, controlling the narrative at the port. And then when he’d introduced her to Keema, well, they were working together on this particular con, now weren’t they? Clearly all of _that _had been contrived as well. Her instincts had told her she was being used then, and they’d been right. She _had _been used, quite dramatically, and that was perhaps the worst part of this. Every time she thought about it, there’d be a dull ache in her chest, as if someone had reached in and twisted everything. This sucked, no matter which way she sliced it, and there was no real remedy she could think of.

She hadn’t told Scott or Vetra. What was the point? They’d all warned her that this would happen, and their false sympathy wasn’t going to help anything. Lexi wouldn’t be much help either, though she might offer some tips on improving her mental health. She didn’t want to admit that she’d been wrong, that they’d all been right about him. Besides, everyone on the _Tempest_ was Scott’s friend way more than they were hers. And it’s not as if she really had any friends on Kadara, did she? The only friends she’d made were all in the Collective, and they’d been using her. More than anything, Sara wanted her mom. Ellen Ryder had always been good with these sorts of things. She would have given Sara a hug and rubbed her back while she cried, then they would have made hot chocolate, eaten some ice cream, and watched an old Earth vid. But Sara’s mom wasn’t there to make everything better again, and nobody else would be either.

Sara was sitting on her couch like a miserable lump when there came a knock on her apartment door. She’d ignored the dozen or so times Reyes had attempted to call her, the numerous messages from him, and all the attempts from his various associates and so-called ‘friends’. That someone had the audacity to show themselves in person was beyond infuriating. Still, they were persistent, and the incessant knocking was distracting from Blasto’s monologue, so Sara grudgingly got up and answered it, only to find a smiling Keema carrying a datapad. Sara made to slam the door in the angaran’s face, only to have her grab the door and keep it open.

“Ryder, I know you’re upset, but we should talk,” said Keema diplomatically.

“I have nothing to say to you,” said Sara as she once more attempted to slam the door.

“Would you not at least like an explanation?” said Keema.

“I’d sooner never speak to any of you again, thanks,” said Sara.

“You humans are so stubborn sometimes. At least allow me to give you the full story so that you do not have only half the details,” said Keema.

Sara’s need to know things was at war with her desire to never see any of these people again. In the end, her curiosity won out and she reluctantly allowed Keema to come inside.

The angaran took one look at the apartment and said, “You really do have the most adorable obsession with purple.”

“I see your fearless leader told _everyone _about that,” said Sara as she stalked back over to her couch and returned to her blanket nest, hugging a pillow tightly as if it might shield her from further heartbreak.

Keema settled into an armchair and set the datapad on the coffee table in front of them. “Sara, I want you to know that I am sorry for how this all played out. I told him that you would figure it out eventually if he never told you himself, but he agonized over how to do it. It was adorable, really. He was afraid of what you might think.”

“Oh? And how’d that work out for him?” replied Sara tersely.

“He’s moping. He’s gone through numerous relationships since arriving on Kadara, and still I’ve never seen him like this. You’re different Sara, and I think he might actually love you,” said Keema.

“Do the lot of you never get tired of lying?” said Sara.

“We have no reason to lie to you, Sara. And frankly, a distracted Charlatan is bad for business. He was ridiculously efficient and successful with you at his side, and now he’s moping, which as I said, is bad for business. He doesn’t think you’ll see him, so here I am fixing his mess,” said Keema.

“I’m not interested,” said Sara bluntly.

“Do you know how many people know the Charlatan’s identity?” asked Keema patiently. Dealing with feuding lovers was like convincing a toddler to eat vegetables.

“No, and I don’t particularly care,” said Sara.

“Including you and him, five. In the entire cluster. Five people. Crux is in Draullir and out of the Outcasts’ reach, Kian is untouchable in Tartarus, and Sloane would bring down the wrath of the angara if something happened to me. We only know because we _need _to know and because the Collective would fall apart if we did not. Sloane cannot get to us. Do you know what happens to the people who the Outcasts _suspect _of knowing the Charlatan’s identity?” asked Keema expectantly.

“Oh, wait, I think I saw this in a vid. They bite a cyanide pill or something, right?” said Sara. She wasn’t having it.

“That might be a mercy by comparison. Sloane has then beaten within an inch of their lives, and as they’re stumbling out of Outcast headquarters, she has Kaetus shoot them in the back,” said Keema.

“Good god. And you’re telling me this because…?” said Sara, all humor gone from her voice.

“Because the Outcasts already dislike you. Sloane, I believe you know, despises you and Kaetus would sooner toss you out an airlock than work with you. Given the Collective agents already shadowing you, they undoubtedly have cause to believe you have formed an alliance with us. You could be a target,” said Keema.

“Only if they want to bring the wrath of both the Pathfinder team and the Nexus down upon them,” said Sara.

“Ryder.”

“And Sloane has no way of knowing that I know,” continued Sara.

“Someone like you would never trust the Charlatan until you knew his identity. Sloane knows that,” said Keema.

“The irony of that being that I didn’t realize how untrustworthy he was until I knew,” countered Sara.

“He only lied because he cares about you,” insisted Keema.

“That’s not how caring about people works. You don’t lie to people about things that important. And you don’t use them,” said Sara.

Keema shook her head and slid the datapad over to Sara. “If you will not listen to me, at least read this.”

“Do I even want to know?” said Sara, looking at the datapad on the table as if it were a dead rat.

“Allow him to explain in his own words. If you will not listen to me, then perhaps you will at least understand why he lied,” said Keema.

With that, she stood to leave.

“Not going to beg me not to run and tell Sloane that I know who the Charlatan is?” said Sara.

“I could, but I doubt you will. You wouldn’t be in the state you are if you feel the same way about him as he does about you. I _could _resort to drastic means to contain the information, true, even if the Charlatan _has _ordered that you aren’t to be harmed. I could, but I won’t, because even if you feel betrayed at the moment, Sara, I like you. And even if you no longer trust us, we trust you,” said Keema simply.

With that she left, leaving Sara with too much to think about.

Sara stared at the datapad for a long moment before electing to ignore its existence and return to watching _Blasto_. She made a concerted effort to focus on the movie, but the datapad was just _sitting _there and _taunting_ her. She finally had enough and put a pillow over it, hoping that hiding it would erase its existence.

This did not work.

Two _Blastos_ later, Sara finally caved in. At least if she knew what it said, she could properly destroy the datapad and have the catharsis of that.

She kept _Blasto _on, determined to crush any and all feelings she might catch from this.

As it turned out, she need not have worried. Instead of a heartfelt letter full of romantic prose, she got a full set of plans, schematics, and documents that detailed all of the innerworkings of Reyes’ smuggling business, the Collective, and personal life, down to the actual location of his apartment and his original Initiative file. It was, in Sara’s opinion, an insane amount of information to give anyone, let alone someone who was furious with you. She didn’t really need to know all of this, and she wasn’t entirely positive why he’d sent her all this.

Luckily for her, he actually had included a message.

_Sara—_

_ I know that I lied, but what I said the other day was the truth of it. I liked the way you looked at me, and I was afraid that if you knew who I really was, well, all of this would happen. I will not pretend that my intentions toward you at first were completely innocent, but I was using the Pathfinder’s resources and SAM, not you, and only really for the Roekaar murders. I was taken with you from the very beginning, but it was not until we began working together that I realized that you were different. You were right that I did not need to date you in order to have your help in establishing an outpost, and that’s not why I did. Sara, I care about you, and I wanted to tell you everything, but I was afraid. Afraid of how you’d react, afraid of losing you, and frankly of how much danger it would put you in. Almost no one knows the truth about me, and over a dozen Collective agents have died just on suspicion of knowing. _

_ I don’t want to hide who I am anymore, Sara, at least not from you. I want you to know who I really am and to know the truth. This datapad has everything you could want to know about me, and probably more. Information is like gold to people on Kadara, so you are now the richest woman on the planet. Give it to the Nexus or Sloane or your brother, I don’t care. You hold my life in your hands right now. I want you to trust me, Sara. Hopefully this proves to you that I’m serious about that. _

_ \-- Reyes _

Sara frowned at the datapad and then did the unthinkable: she put on real pants. Not that she hadn’t been wearing pants before (leggings were definitely pants), but she needed to look at least marginally decent to walk halfway across the port. And that, sadly, meant putting on pants.

Armed with the dangerous datapad, a pair of shockingly comfortable jeans, and the knowledge that she could easily destroy this man with her biotics, Sara headed to one of the last places she wanted to go: Reyes’ apartment.

Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to find him home. He cracked open the door and looked at her in shock. “Sara?”

Either he was a good actor, or he really had thought she would take the datapad straight to his enemies.

She held up the datapad. “Was this really necessary?”

He glanced around her briefly before pulling her inside, firmly closing the door behind her. “What are you doing here?”

She waved the datapad in his face. “Reyes, I’m mad because you lied about who you are and used me for your own personal gain, not because you didn’t report the income of your smuggling business last quarter.”

“You wanted transparency, so here’s transparency. You hold my life in your hands like a fragile baby duck,” said Reyes.

“Oh no, you do _not _get to make little duck jokes right now,” warned Sara.

“What do you want me to say, Sara? I care about you and I’m sorry that I lied. I knew I had to tell you somehow, but I was hoping that Sloane would be out of the way first so that you’d at least be reasonably safe with the knowledge,” said Reyes.

“This again? You really think Sloane is dumb enough to try something against me?” frowned Sara.

“Do you think I have Collective agents shadowing you for my own amusement?” countered Reyes.

She blinked at him, then grew angry again. “You have Collective agents _following _me?”

“They’re not spies, Sara, they’re there to protect you from the Outcast agents following you and for when you walk home in the middle of the night even though you know it’s not safe. You really need to stop doing that,” said Reyes.

“I don’t even know which part of that to focus on,” said Sara.

“I don’t need to spy on someone I’m dating; I’m not a monster,” frowned Reyes.

“Do you really expect me to trust you when you’ve been lying to my face for months?” asked Sara bluntly.

“Phrased like that, I am not overly optimistic,” admitted Reyes.

“I just can’t believe you. How could you sit there on my couch and listen to me rant about how my ex cheated on me and lied, and then keep lying?” exclaimed Sara.

He looked tired at the thought and couldn’t quite look her in the eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I…panicked. At first, I thought I should put as much distance between us as physically possible because I was quite possibly the worst man in the world for you. That obviously didn’t work. The more time I spent with you, the more I grew to care for you, until finally I had to do something about it one way or another. I actually started inventing crises just so I could see you. Not that I _caused _them or anything, but little things like tracking down lost shipments in the badlands for merchants definitely did not warrant your level of expertise. After Sloane’s party, I knew I would have to tell you eventually, that you deserved the truth. But the way you looked at me…I was someone to you, someone more than a pilot who came to Andromeda and ended up an exile. I didn’t want to see the disappointment in your eyes when you realized that I was more than just a smuggler making the best of a bad situation. Then the Outcasts started shadowing the shadow that I put on you, and I knew that telling you would mean putting you in danger on top of everything else, and I resolved to tell you after Sloane was out of the picture. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me since coming to Andromeda, Sara, and I was—am—terrified of losing you.”

That much finally made perfect, terrible sense to Sara. She’d rarely seen Reyes so vulnerable before, so devoid of his mask of charm and lies that he wore for the world. She’d figured out early on that he had trouble letting people in, she just hadn’t realized how much and why. Now, at least, she understood that in his own way, he was just trying to protect her and that he really, truly was just afraid of losing the one good thing he’d managed to find in Andromeda.

It all still annoyed her, though. Even if he did very much look like a kicked puppy at the moment. “And how did Crux end up knowing intimate details of my apartment’s interior?” asked Sara, arms crossed and frowning slightly at him.

Reyes looked embarrassed instead of ashamed now. It was a strange look on him. “I, um, may have occasionally waxed poetic about your finer qualities. Keema bore the brunt of it.”

Sara wanted to say something, then remembered that the entire _Tempest_ crew knew that she thought Reyes’ voice reminded her of her mom's hot chocolate and held her tongue. He could perhaps be forgiven for that part. It’s not as if he had said anything negative, after all.

“Keema’s your second in command, I take it?” reasoned Sara.

“More or less. Advisor and friend may be more accurate,” said Reyes.

She frowned at him, drumming her fingers on her arm, trying to decide what to do about all this. She was still very much not over this, but she _had _missed him. Actually, she’d missed him quite a lot, particularly when she’d been sitting alone needing a hug and he gave such good, warm hugs. She missed hanging out with him, just lounging around her apartment, watching vids, and being around him. Without even realizing it, she’d grown used to having him around. Honestly, it wasn’t even the Charlatan part that bothered her, it was the _lying_ about the Charlatan part. Everything made significantly more sense to her now that she knew he was a crime lord, or whatever you would call the Charlatan. Pirate king? Mobster? Crime boss? Pirate king certainly sounded better. Sloane certainly had the throne bit down if they were pirate kings.

When she didn’t immediately say anything, Reyes grew worried. Well, more worried than he already was. He’d passed worried quite some time ago. “Sara?”

“You realize it’s not the Charlatan part that’s bothering me, right?” she said finally.

He blinked at her. “I’ve…done things I’m not proud of to get this far, to get ahead. I’ve killed people.”

She rolled her eyes. “We were both in the Alliance before this, and I’m guessing you know just as well as I do how many Outcasts and members of your own organization I’ve killed since coming here. Contrary to what you might think, I do understand more or less how things work on Kadara; it’s all very Hobbesian. Not a lot of charming souvenir shops or florists here. But you are running a soup kitchen in the slums and went so far as to form the Collective just to get rid of Sloane’s corruption, so that’s not _so _bad. Somewhere beneath all that charm, the lies, and the murder is a good man, probably.”

“You do actually make me want to be better, Sara—to be the man you think I am. That wasn’t a lie,” said Reyes.

Sara huffed out a deep breath and looked out into his apartment absently instead of looking at him, only to have her train of thought completely derailed. Whatever she had expected of his apartment, it hadn’t really been this. Clearly designed with practicality and business in mind, the main room of the apartment was dimly lit by covered windows and a number of screens with various readouts and camera feeds from around Kadara Port and the badlands, including a live feed from the Draullir base. A desk was strewn in datapads and the odd glass or weapon, and there was one singular couch and coffee table positioned in front of a television that likely saw very little use. A door stood open to a utilitarian bedroom without the bed made. A kitchen stood off to the far right of the apartment appearing, at least from a distance, relatively clean save the odd dish towel and bottle of something sitting out. “If all of this stuff is here, what are you doing sitting in Tartarus most of the time?”

“I need to be able to meet with people. That means being accessible in a secure, yet public location that can in no way be tied back to me or the Collective,” explained Reyes.

“I’m guessing you don’t entertain very often,” said Sara.

“You would be the first. Not even Keema knows where I live,” said Reyes.

“Then why did you tell _me_?” wondered Sara.

Reyes shook his head. “I told you, Sara, I trust you with my life and more. I’ve never been particularly good at opening up to people as a rule, but now you know everything, and I have to say that I’m…relieved. Everyone else on Kadara knows either the smuggler or the Charlatan, but you’re the only one who knows _me_. I cannot tell you just how nice it will be not to hide anything from you anymore.”

“Fool me once, Reyes,” said Sara quietly.

He swallowed and nodded, not meeting her eyes.

“I’m annoyed that you lied, although now I guess I understand _why _you did it. It’s going to take me a while to not be annoyed; I tend to hold a grudge. Not one of my finer traits, I’ll grant you,” allowed Sara. “And you should know that I didn’t tell Scott or Vetra yet. That being said, if you _ever_, and I mean _ever_, pull this shit again, you’re a dead man, Collective be damned.”

He dared to look at her then, his whiskey-colored eyes lighting with the first real hope he’d felt in days.

“You’ll be _wishing _I’d given this datapad to Sloane or that I let Cora and Drack loose on you, understood?” she continued. “And I mean it. No more lying—at all. If I wear an ugly sweater, I expect you to tell me and not just evade the question with a compliment. This is the last time I’m asking you this, because there are no third chances. You broke my heart once and I’m not exactly looking to repeat the experience. If I give you a second chance, Reyes, you have to swear to me that you will _never _betray my trust or lie or pull anything like this again. Are we clear?”

“I thought you hated me,” admitted Reyes quietly.

“If I hated you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. If I _really_, truly hated you, you’d already either be dead or turned over to Sloane or the Nexus. You realize that, right?” frowned Sara.

“Well, I do now,” said Reyes.

“Don’t you dare make me regret trusting you,” said Sara, finally looking up to meet his gaze. His eyes were filled with more naked emotion than any of the words they’d exchanged so far, the look between them saying more than words ever could.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear tentatively. She didn’t object, simply held his gaze. “You have terrible taste in men.”

“The worst,” she agreed.

He pulled her into his arms then, holding her tightly. Sara could have cried. Wrapped so securely in his embrace, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so warm or safe. It was the closest thing to coming home she’d felt in a long time, and she was determined to hold on to the feeling. Reyes was a mess of a human being, but she wasn’t much better. And more than that, he was _her _mess, and she didn’t want to let him go. It was perhaps in that moment that Sara realized what her feelings for him really were.

The datapad was still squished between them, and it was digging into her ribcage, so she separated herself from him ever so slightly to hand it back to him. Without a word he took it and tossed it somewhere off towards the couch before slipping his arms back around her.

After several long moments, Sara said, “And no more leaving me with the bar tab.”

Reyes chuckled lightly and Sara could feel it reverberating in his chest. “I can live with that. And you know, it’s going to get dark soon.”

“Is this your way of telling me to go home?” she asked.

He pressed a kiss into her hair. “It’s me asking you to stay.”

“I thought you didn’t entertain guests here,” said Sara, only partly teasing.

“I haven’t been in love with anyone else here,” admitted Reyes.

She took a moment to register his words before she reached up and kissed him. The kiss was a promise and a confession, a commitment and an oath. They’d laid bare their souls for the other, for the first time truly coming to know the other. Soon more than merely their souls were laid bare for the other, the emotional nakedness of the day giving way to another form of it as the barriers separating them finally fell away, leaving only the two of them and the love they felt for each other. 

\---

Reyes woke up for the first time he could remember with the woman he’d spent the night with—the woman he loved—still sleeping softly with her head pillowed on his chest and her arm draped over him. Generally speaking, Reyes Vidal did not _do _this sort of thing. Oh, he’d had relationships before, to be sure. But not like this. Not with someone who genuinely loved him for who he was, with all his faults, and who he adored. This was uncharted territory for him, but heaven help him, Sara Ryder was worth it.

He knew when she woke up, if only for the little sigh she made and how she cuddled against him. He could get used to this. 

“Morning,” he said.

“Morning,” she replied with a yawn.

“Sleep well?” he asked as he carded his fingers through her hair.

She was still very much drowsy. “Why don’t you sit on a throne?”  
“I prefer to operate from the shadows. You get more done that way,” said Reyes.

“But you have to hide all the time and lie to everyone,” said Sara.

“Not with you,” he said, pressing a kiss into her hair.

She hummed in response with a lazy smile. “Always the charmer.”

“For you, anyway,” said Reyes.

She looked at him flatly.

“_Especially _for you,” said Reyes teasingly, then he sobered some. “Sara, I know that I’m a liar, a thief, and a killer, but I don’t want to be any of those things with you. You make me want to be better than that.” He sighed heavily. “I’ve never really…done something like this before.”

She looked at him in confusion. “Reyes, I know you’ve spent the night with people before. And had relationships.”

He carded his fingers through her hair and regarded her with a pained expression. “Never like this, like with you.”

She propped herself up on her elbow and narrowed her eyes at him. “Am I to take this to mean that you’re not making me waffles?”

“I don’t think they have waffles in Andromeda,” said Reyes in amusement.

“You run an entire syndicate of smugglers, pirates, thieves, and murderers, and you’re telling me that you can’t track down a waffle in this galaxy?” said Sara in mock outrage.

“But I can still make breakfast, and I know you like coffee,” said Reyes.

“Well, I suppose that’s acceptable then,” said Sara.

Reyes smiled lovingly at her, leaned over, and kissed her, long and slow. This, naturally, devolved into something far more so that breakfast became decidedly brunch by the time they finally got around to it.

\--- 

Reyes was kicking himself for not telling Sara about himself sooner, for not letting her in before this. Not only was every moment he spent with her nothing short of wonderful, but she was an incredible ally to have. Now that she was in the know in more ways than one, they were finally able to use their collective resources to the best of their collective abilities, which was proving to be quite the thing. And even more than their incredible working relationship, Reyes found that he loved having Sara so completely integrated into his life. He hadn’t realized how freeing it could be to finally be honest with her about so many different things. He felt lighter than he had in years, and happier than he could scarcely remember being. Sara Ryder was proving to be the complete embodiment of everything he’d come to Andromeda hoping to find, and he was so incredibly happy to have found her.

Keema found it all patently adorable.

“At least you finally told her,” said Keema, her cigar smoke swirling around her as much as secrets always seemed to.

“Yes, yes, rub it in,” said Reyes.

“And how did she react?” asked Keema.

Despite the fact that this was, in fact, a highly covert meeting with Kian keeping note of everyone coming within fifteen feet of the backroom of Tartarus, as he always did, no one bothered to mention any of that to Sara as she casually strolled into the backroom without Kian so much as giving her a cursory glance. Kian, being one of Reyes’ closest friends and allies, also didn’t feel the need to inform Reyes of this development. After all, it was sometimes rather fun to watch your friends panic, even when your friends ran secret criminal empires.

This was how Sara managed to walk into the room mere moments after Keema had spoken, nearly making the Charlatan choke on his drink.

“Ryder, fancy seeing you here,” drawled Keema before sending a smoke ring her way.

“Keema, always a pleasure,” said Sara politely. She was dressed in her armor, and from the state of her hair, likely had just returned from the badlands. She shifted her attention to Reyes. “Thought you’d be interested to know that I just spent the day running around finding a UV lamp for a couple of stoners who accidentally stumbled upon what SAM claims is practically a miracle drug with hallucinogenic side effects in large dosages.”

“Never a dull moment with you, is it, mi amor?” said Reyes in amusement.

“Oh, well, you know me; anything worth doing,” shrugged Sara.

“What kind of drug?” asked Keema, her gaze intent.

“My intention was medicinal. It apparently has both antibiotic and painkilling properties, which could easily prove invaluable here. I would strongly advise _against _creating another Oblivion out of this, however content those stoners were,” said Sara, with a sharp look between the two of them.

“Determined to be our moral backbone, I see,” said Keema in amusement.

“She is endeavoring to keep me on the straight and narrow,” said Reyes.

“_Is _she now?” Keema seemed to find this hilarious. “And how is that working for you, Ryder?”

“Well, he’s stopped lying to me, but he’s still running the Collective from the backroom of a shady nightclub. As long as he’s not secretly also working with either the Archon or Tann, I’ll survive,” said Sara.

“I’m just glad you finally know. At least now I don’t have to hear him lamenting the situation or fretting over how to tell you,” said Keema.

Reyes could tell that this conversation about coming dangerously close to being entirely at his expense, and so chose to change the subject. “So, a pain killer and an antibiotic, you say?”

“And it’s antiseptic! Truly, it could be something of a miracle for Kadara, and a lot of Andromeda, really. I took some samples to Crux and I have some that I was going to send to Scott the next time he bothers to drop by. The, err, farmers in question said they’d give me as much as I wanted in exchange for snacks. Apparently, they have the munchies a lot, but that seems like a pretty fair exchange,” said Sara brightly.

Reyes really did love this woman, and all of the truly bizarre things she got up to. “I’ll get the reports from Crux. Do you have a navpoint for these farmers?”

“Of course,” said Sara as she tapped on her omni-tool, sending him the navpoint.

“Thank you, mi amor,” said Reyes, his eyes promising much more than faint praise in the backroom of Tartarus.

“We’re still doing dinner later?” she asked, the implications of that look not even remotely lost on her.

“Absolutely,” agreed Reyes. He kissed the top of her gloved hand, his eyes never leaving hers.

Sara blushed appropriately and glanced at Keema, some of her composure returning. “And we’re still doing lunch this week?”

“Always, Ryder,” agreed Keema.

Sara nodded before kissing Reyes briefly and breezing out of the room as quickly as she’d come.

Reyes watched her leave with keen interest.

Keema smiled wickedly at him.

“Not a word,” said Reyes, returning to business. “Now, about these farmers.”

\---

“She’s delivering medicines to them and all evidence points to a formal alliance. Collective guards are shadowing her, both in the port and the badlands. Sara Ryder’s become a problem,” said Kaetus definitively.

Sloane was inclined to agree. “She’s aiding the enemy. If she’s gone so far as to track down medicine for them, then she’s probably managed to meet the Charlatan by now. I want her taken care of.”

Kaetus nodded. “At once, Sloane.”

“Don’t disappoint me, Kaetus; you’re the only one I can even trust anymore,” said Sloane, her voice echoing in the otherwise empty throne room.

Kaetus bowed and left the room.


	9. Truth and Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the violence warning comes in.

Things were really starting to look up. Sara had initially been uncertain of how to proceed with Reyes given this whole Charlatan business, but if the past several weeks had been any indication, there was no need to be worried. Reyes had completely given up attempting to hide anything from her, instead being completely transparent in both intention and feeling, and Sara could not have been happier. It took a lot for him to open up to her, but now that she’d managed to crack his shell, to break down his walls, he seemed relieved to let her in. Sara, for her part, loved that. She loved being the one he could talk to, loved that she could tell _him _anything, and just generally enjoyed being with him. She’d fallen hard for the guy, and things between them had been nothing short of wonderful since The Revelation, as she was calling it.

And that was just in her personal life.

As it turned out, dating the Charlatan had its perks, namely that her outpost planning was going really quite smoothly now. Having a direct line she could consult to her Collective allies was very useful, and it allowed her to secure a formal alliance and deal with them for once the outpost was up and running, that the Collective and the outpost would work together on Kadara, with the Collective helping provide protection to the outpost in exchange for some Nexus goods, a potential for rehabilitation and readmission to the Nexus for some exiles who passed through screening and a probation period, and what’s more, they’d even settled on a location. The only obstacle now were the Outcasts, and Reyes assured her that if all went to plan, they would soon no longer be a threat. Sloane was growing increasingly paranoid as of late, with only Kaetus being allowed to actually meet with her. Reyes said that taking Kaetus away would be the straw the broke the proverbial camel’s back, as it were, and Kadara would almost immediately be prime for the taking. Sara had not asked what this all would entail, knowing instinctively that she probably did not want to know.

Sara knew that she wasn’t _really _supposed to walk around Kadara at night. Everyone she knew had warned her against walking around Kadara at night. In this particular case, however, it wasn’t _actually _her fault that she was walking home in the dead of night. There had been something of an emergency she’d had to take care of, what with some stolen Nexus supplies. As it turned out, the Outcasts had some man on the inside back on the Nexus stealing stuff for them. And while ordinarily Sara might have just frowned at that and let it slide, especially if it was going to help those less fortunate, the Outcasts were, apparently, hoarding the supplies for themselves, which was unacceptable. This had led Sara on something of a wild goose chase around Kadara Port, eventually with her tracking down the crates down in the lower wards. She’d tagged them and gotten her Collective shadows to take the supplies instead, making them swear on their lives to use them to take care of the needy instead of hoarding them. The agents had agreed, what with Nexus supplies being the most valuable resource on Kadara, and had let her be.

All of that running around and crate locating meant that it was the time of night that a person really shouldn’t be walking around the port, especially when her usual shadow was otherwise occupied with crate-related issues. She managed to make it all the way back to the market district before it became clear that everything about the situation, from the crates to the loss of her shadow to the time of day, had been a set up.

As Sara walked through the marketplace, two shadowy figures emerged from the gloom to stand in the dim light of a neon sign, their Outcast uniforms and assault rifles clearly visible. Sara came to a stop, keenly aware of the dozen or so other Outcast agents positioned around her in the shadows, waiting for a signal from their leader to strike. Sara knew this wouldn’t end well.

Sara’s biotics flared a brilliant shade of bluish-purple as the first shot rang out, her barriers vaporizing the bullet instantly. The rest happened all very quickly, at least to Sara’s mind. It was a blur of biotics and gunfire, with Outcast agents flying into walls and having mass effect field rip them to shreds. There was a reason they said that biotics were always armed, and why asari commandos were so feared. Sara hadn’t spent her first months in Andromeda training with Cora to improve her biotics for nothing, nor had she been recommended for N training because of Alec Ryder.

She’d managed to escape the marketplace and avoid the remaining Outcast members, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think she’d gotten away. She was in a narrow alleyway when she turned a corner and ran smack into a krogan, staggering her. It was enough to throw her off and her biotics were taxed enough that she didn’t have time to recover before a shot rang out and she felt a searing pain through her right shoulder. She cried out and stumbled, only to have the krogan she’d run into slam her to the ground. Someone’s boot began pressing into her back, and she recognized the turian’s voice when he spoke. “You’re going to regret allying yourself with the Collective, Ryder. And so will the Charlatan.”

Everything went black after that.

\---

Reyes felt numb, a cold sweat chilling him to the bone as he sat in bed, the glow of his omni-tool the only light in the room. Surely, he’d heard incorrectly. Surely, his worst fears weren’t being realized at this very moment. “What?”

“The Outcasts have Sara,” repeated Crux in her crisp, unemotional tone. “You need to get to your safehouse.”

Reyes recovered the ability to move, though his movements were mechanical as he climbed out of bed and began searching for clothes in the dark. None of it felt real. “When? How? What about the agents shadowing her?”

“About an hour ago in the marketplace. Outcast ambush. Agents report she’d been chasing down Nexus crates the Outcasts stole and she’d ordered them to confiscate the contraband. They stayed with the crates and she walked back alone. It was a setup. The agents involved understand their error,” said Crux.

Reyes swore colorfully as he fastened on his armor. Yes, this was absolutely the worst-case scenario. “Kaetus?”

“Surveillance footage shows him and a krogan guard taking her away. Looks like she was shot, but still alive. I expect they’ll interrogate her if they haven’t already. I don’t need to tell you how badly this will end,” said Crux.

Reyes closed his eyes and let out a breath, trying to calm down. Panicking wouldn’t do her any good now. “I doubt they’ll learn anything from her.”

Crux did not believe this for a minute. “With all due respect, sir, Sara Ryder may be an admirable woman, and she may have Alliance and Pathfinder training, but you know as well as I do what Sloane and Kaetus do to their prisoners. Anyone would break under that.”

When Reyes didn’t immediately respond, Crux added, “I’m sorry, sir, but you really must go to the safehouse. She’s already as good as dead, and I doubt she would wish for you to join her.”

Reyes felt sick, his carefully constructed world seeming to crumble around him, as he left his apartment. This was why he hadn’t wanted to tell her. He’d been terrified of someone trying to use her for this, and now they had. Now his worst enemy had the woman he loved and if he knew Sara, she wasn’t about to knuckle under and tell them what they wanted just to save herself. No, her N7 father had taught her well, and she was loyal to a fault, so there was no way Sara would give up his identity, even under pressure. Sara would weigh her options and the value of the lives involved, and she would decide that the mission would come before everything, and so he was reasonably sure that his identity was safe. But not her.

The worst-case scenario had happened, he was losing the woman he loved, and it was all his fault. 

\--- 

Everything hurt. It had been hours of this, but Sara’s resolve had not waivered. If these assholes thought they were going to get anything out of her just by breaking her bones and stabbing her a few times, then they had another thing coming. She’d survived some real shit before, and Alliance recon training was no joke, so this was nothing. She’d gotten an N school recommendation the last time something like this had happened, when most of her unit had been killed and she’d barely managed to grab her CO and the Prothean data drive and make it out of the compound. That had ended with a long stint in a medical ward before news of her N school recommendation got to her, quickly followed by news of her mother’s illness and her father’s fall from grace. She doubted this particular incident would end as optimistically.

Pain was just weakness leaving the body, or so her father used to say. It was also the body’s way of telling you that something was _wrong_, but that was Lexi or her mother talking, and Sara had never really taken after her mother. Scott had died once, and he’d more been startled by the experience than anything. Both of her parents were gone, so at least she’d have good company. The outpost was practically already established, just waiting on a few final boxes to be checked. Scott and Reyes were her only loose ends, but Sara was reasonably sure that they’d both get over it eventually. Probably. Hopefully.

Kaetus twisted the blade between her ribs sharply, making her cringe. “We _know _you know who the Charlatan is. Give us a name and all this will end.”

Sara looked at him with her one good eye. The other was swollen shut, although blood was dripping into this one. “Go fuck yourself.”

Another blade was stabbed into her left hand. Apparently, that had been the wrong answer.

\---

Scott stared at the asari ark through the forward windows, the weight of the day settling over him. He’d need to have a very uncomfortable conversation with Cora soon, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. As it was, heading back to the Nexus was going to be an experience. Why was it that _every _time they found a new ark, it was either in pieces or being boarded by the kett? Why? Once, just once, he wanted to find an ark that was just hanging out on a moon having decided to settle a previously unknown jungle planet or something. Was that really asking for so much?

And then, because this day needed to get worse, SAM decided to deliver some more bad news.

_Pathfinder, Sara’s biorhythms have become erratic._

“She’s probably just facing off with some outlaws or…I don’t know, doing something with her boyfriend,” said Scott dismissively.

_Her baseline readings for both battle scenarios and romantic situations do not align with her present condition. I would theorize that a period of prolonged and repeated injury may be the cause. _

Scott’s blood ran cold. “SAM, are you saying that she’s being tortured?”

_That would account for the erratic biorhythms. _

Scott swore colorfully, making both Suvi and Kallo look at him in alarm. He called Reyes.

After several agonizingly long moments, Reyes answered. “What?”

He sounded agitated.

“Vidal, where the fuck is my sister?” asked Scott, his voice deadly calm.

“I’m handling it,” came the frustrated, distracted response before the call ended.

Scott wanted to throw something.

“What’s happening?” asked Suvi carefully.

“Sara’s in trouble. I don’t know what exactly, but I’m going to find out, and when I do, whoever’s responsible is going to pay dearly,” said Scott darkly.

\--- 

Kaetus glared at the mangled, bloody form before him. She’d fallen unconscious eventually, her head lulled forward and a curtain of hair hiding some of the damage done. She hadn’t given them anything useful, mostly just mouthed off at them. It was beyond frustrating, and Kaetus had never hated someone more in that moment than he loathed Sara Ryder.

The doors to the interrogation room opened and Sloane stormed in, her mood somehow managing to be even worse than Kaetus’s.

“She didn’t give us anything, did she?” scoffed Sloane, fixing Sara with a look of complete disgust.

“Not the Charlatan’s identity, at least, if she even knows it,” said Kaetus.

“Informants say the Pathfinder’s on his way here like a bat out of hell. We can still turn this to our advantage. Dump her in Draullir where she can be the Collective’s problem. We might just get the Pathfinder on our side yet,” said Sloane.

Kaetus didn’t like it, but he couldn’t refuse Sloane. He barked at a pair of guards to grab the prisoner, and the group of them left the interrogation room.

\---

Reyes glowered at nothing in particular as he stood with Crux in the Collective base in Draullir, watching through the sterile glass window as doctors attended to a near-mortally wounded Sara Ryder. By some miracle, she was still alive, undoubtedly out of sheer force of will.

“She’s a tough one, I’ll give her that,” said Crux.

Reyes didn’t say anything. It had been a very, very long couple of hours since Sara’s injured form had been picked up by a Collective patrol. Since then, she’d been in surgery as the best doctors on Kadara began to repair the damage the Outcasts had done to her. The combined forces of Crux, Keema, and Kian had, by some miracle, managed to grab Kaetus in broad daylight in the port, right from under the Outcasts’ noses. He was presently receiving a similar degree of hospitality that he’d shown Sara. Reyes felt less than no sympathy for the turian, or for the reportedly devastated Sloane. He’d sent Sloane his ultimatum, so now he just needed to wait for noon the next day, and if everything went according to plan, Sara’s sacrifice would at least not be in vain.

Sara hadn’t given up his identity, and that settled him with a tremendous amount of guilt. She was like this because of him as much as because of Sloane. There were no words that would suffice, no actions that would substitute for an apology. No, this was his fault, as much as he loathed to admit it, and Sara deserved better. She needed to be safe, and Kadara had proved anything but.

Reyes stalked off into the base. He had preparations to make.

\---

Scott did not know why Sloane Kelly was sending him urgent messages to see him, especially when his sister was resolutely _missing_, but he knew that this whole situation smelled worse than New Tuchanka. Even so, he was surprised to see Sloane entirely alone as he stormed into her throne room like a storm cloud on a rampage.

“What’s this about?” he demanded.

Sloane looked tired, strung out, and possibly on her last leg. “I’ll be frank with you, Pathfinder, I don’t like asking for your help. I don’t like your snobby sister and I don’t particularly like you, but you’re a neutral party and I think we might even have a common enemy in this.”

“Said snobby sister is missing. I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that?” asked Scott impatiently.

“The Collective has her. They also took Kaetus. The things they do to their prisoners…” trailed off Sloane.

“Great,” said Scott.

“The Charlatan sent along a message. Wants to meet at high noon in a cave on Draullir to end this one on one. You’re a neutral party. I want you there so the Collective doesn’t try anything. There’s an outpost in it for you with full Outcast support if you do,” said Sloane.

At the moment, Scott couldn’t have cared less about some damn outpost. He cared about getting his sister back, and if that meant going along with Sloane’s bizarre standoff like something out of an old Spaghetti Western, then so be it. “Fine. I’ll meet you there.”

It was an incredibly tense ride in the Nomad out to Draullir, with Cora, Vetra, and Drack all seeming to understand that now was not the time for idle chatter. Or, as was the case with Vetra and Drack as of late, planning on all the ways they would dismember who ever had hurt Sara. Vetra seemed adamant that Vidal couldn’t possibly be behind it, but Scott knew Sara’s history much better than she did, and he guessed there was a roughly 0% chance that he wasn’t _somehow _involved in what had happened to Sara. No, her taste in men was too terrible for that to be the case.

And so, it was that Scott was in a _fantastic _mood when the four of them met Sloane outside of the Draullir cave and headed inside. It was dark and damp inside the cave, with more than a few crevices and stalagmites that could easily hide an ambush.

They arrived in an antechamber and a smooth voice greeted them. “You look like you’re waiting for someone.”

As Reyes emerged from the shadows on a ledge, a dangerous glint in his whiskey-colored eyes, Scott swore colorfully under his breath.

“What is this? I’m here for the Charlatan, not some third-rate smuggler,” scoffed Sloane. She thought he was here about Sara.

It was only mostly about Sara.

Scott rubbed his forehead. “That _is _the Charlatan. Damn, Sara really does have a type, doesn’t she? There’s a very big I-told-you-so coming her way, assuming she’s still alive.”

“She knows,” said Reyes flippantly.

It all made perfect, irritating sense to Sloane. She should have known Ryder had been _seduced_ into allying with the Collective. No wonder the woman hadn’t given up the Charlatan’s identity. Still, she was a crack shot, and Vidal wasn’t going to get away with this insult. He’d duped her people for too long to escape this unscathed.

“Let’s finish this. You and me. One on one,” said Sloane, her mismatched glare intent on the seemingly unconcerned Vidal.

“Let’s,” agreed Reyes darkly.

As they began circling each other, Scott could hardly believe what he was seeing. “What, so the two of you are just going to shoot each other to see who rules Kadara?”

“Better one of us dies than hundreds,” said Reyes, still intent on Sloane.

That _had _to be Sara’s influence, Scott figured.

_Pathfinder, there is a Collective sniper hidden in the upper ledge with his sights set on Ms. Kelly. _

And that, Scott figured, was _not _Sara’s influence. Although, he could see how she would condone it. Shit, Sara really was dating the Charlatan. Which, Scott reasoned, made it highly unlikely that it was the _Collective _who had kidnapped and tortured her. They had no reason to if Vidal was already dating her. Which meant that he’d been lied to. Which meant that the sniper on the ledge could go about his business.

As Sloane reached for her weapon, a shot rang out and Slone crumpled to the ground, clutching her stomach.

Reyes drew his own weapon and approached her. “That was for Kadara.” He pointed his pistol at her forehead. “_This _is for Sara.”

As Sloane crumpled to the ground, her brain matter wetting the stalagmites around her, Reyes began addressing the veritable hoard of Collective agents who had been hidden around the chamber, issuing orders and praise in kind. It was strange to see Sara’s overly charming smuggler suddenly so in command. It was unsettling. And Scott was still _very angry_.

He crossed his arms and glared at Reyes until he bothered to grace the Pathfinder with his attention.

“Looks like you finally got everything you wanted,” glared Scott.

“Sloane had her tortured for information on the Collective. Beyond that, Sloane would have brought war to Heleus, and we haven’t enough people to survive that,” said Reyes.

“Where is my sister, Vidal?” asked Scott, his voice a calm threat.

“Collective Headquarters in Draullir in intensive care. She’s finally out of surgery,” said Reyes.

“I don’t suppose you’d, I don’t know, _take me to her_?” said Scott.

Reyes regarded the man flatly. “No, I thought I’d just hold her hostage forever and never allow her to see the light of day, her family, or friends again.”

“God, her fucking sarcasm’s even rubbing off on you,” said Scott.

“Does that mean I’m not crushing his skull?” asked Drack.

Reyes regarded the krogan warily.

“I’ll let Sara decide. It depends entirely on how much of this bullshit she either planned or condoned,” said Scott, shooting Reyes a warning look.

It was a tense trip to the Collective headquarters which, as it turned out, was within the same cave system and within easy walking distance. It explained how Vidal had been able to set all of this up entirely unnoticed by absolutely anyone.

Scott did not stop being angry when they arrived at the expansive base, even as Vetra expressed her admiration and Vidal basked in the praise. There was something infuriating about Vidal’s smile given the state Sara was apparently in. The man was nowhere near as broken up over this as he should have been, in Scott’s opinion. There was a distinct lack of moping involved. Setting up an elaborate way to kill the person who’d hurt her did not count. Neither did shooting said person in the head, for that matter.

An auburn-haired British woman with a posh accent carrying a datapad met them outside of the medical building. “Sir, Pathfinder, she’s still unconscious but stable.”

“She’s in a coma?” asked Scott, a cold sense of dread overwhelming his anger for the moment.

“They are keeping her sedated for her comfort at the moment. She has a concussion, but there was no brain damage,” said Crux as she led them inside the building.

Considering that this was Kadara, of all places, the Collective’s medical ward was completely sterile and almost as advanced as what Scott had seen on the _Hyperion_. He was forced to grudgingly admit that he was impressed.

Sara’s room was, as promised, the ICU—the _entire _ICU. They weren’t allowed inside, given the sterile environment, but they could see through a large plate glass window, and Scott had to lean on the ledge to steady himself. Cora’s hand appeared on his back in quiet support. Sara looked bad. She was covered in bandages and bruises, with casts on her arms where the bones had been broken, and that was just what they could see. Being unconscious might be a mercy.

“The _Tempest_ has a medical facility, yes?” asked Reyes.

Scott looked at him strangely. “What of it?”  
Reyes’s gaze was fixed on Sara and he did not shift away as he spoke. “Kadara is not safe for her. With Sloane gone, the biggest threat has been removed, but there are still those who would wish her harm, and I will not risk it.”

“Any more than you ‘risked it’ already, you mean?” scoffed Scott.

“I had guards on her, and she knew not to walk through the marketplace at night. The Outcasts ambushed her,” said Reyes. He took a deep breath. “Like I said, the Nexus is safer for her.”

Scott looked at Reyes in surprise. “You want me to take her back to the Nexus?”

The Charlatan’s expression was unreadable. “The outpost is all but established now that Sloane is gone. All it needs is for a Pathfinder to make a call to Colonial Affairs. Her job would be finished here soon anyway.”

“That eager to get rid of her, are you?” asked Scott tersely.

“Eager to see her _safe_,” replied Reyes. “That is not the same thing.”

“If you say so,” said Scott. He switched to comms. “Suvi, get Lexi down here. We’re bringing Sara back with us.”

“Right away, Pathfinder,” replied Suvi quickly.

Scott returned his attention to Reyes. “You realize that she’s never coming back here, right? You’ll probably never see her again?”

“More than you know, Ryder,” said Reyes as he stared unseeingly through the glass. “More than you know.”


	10. Damage Control

Sara opened her eyes, found herself secured onto a cot in an unfamiliar place, staring up at a ceiling, and promptly began panicking. Everything hurt, but the terror overshadowed it as she tried to look around the room to discern her location. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears over the sound of the medical equipment beeping in alarm and it was not until Lexi’s gentle hand appeared on her shoulder and her face came into view that the fear and hyperventilating began to slightly subside.

“Sara, you’re safe. It’s me, Lexi. You’re on the _Tempest_. You are _safe_,” said Lexi calmly.

“What? Why? How? I was just…the Outcasts…they didn’t do anything to the Collective, did they? I swear I didn’t say anything. But what if I did?” panicked Sera.

Lexi hushed her soothingly. “Everything’s all right, Sara. You’re safe now.”

When Sara didn’t calm down, Lexi called for Scott and the Pathfinder came bolting down the short hallway from his quarters.

“Sara, you’re finally awake! How are you feeling?” asked Scott in relief.

“Why am I on the _Tempest_?” asked Sara. Everything was very confusing, and her head hurt. Tears welled in her eyes.

“The Outcasts did a number on you. The Collective doctors did their best for you, but your boyfriend seemed to be under the impression that Nexus healthcare was probably better than the setup in Draullir, so he turfed you back to us. We’re a few hours out from the Nexus now and Harry’ll take over for Lexi once we get you back to the med-bay on the _Hyperion_. We sent word ahead and he’s already got everything waiting,” explained Scott.

Sara stared at him, trying to process all of that.

“And, by the way, did it not seem relevant to mention to me that your boyfriend—the apparently benign smuggler—is the _Charlatan_? Because that would have been really nice to know before Sloane dragged to me their shootout. She’s dead now, by the way. You can thank your boyfriend for that one too,” said Scott.

“Don’t tell anyone,” said Sara urgently.

Scott looked at her as if she had three heads. “_That’s_ what you take away from all this?”

“Scott, if I didn’t tell Kaetus while he was breaking my bones, you had better not tell Tann or anyone else, understand?” said Sara sternly, a hard look in her eyes as she glared at her brother.

“You know, oddly enough, your boyfriend’s occupation doesn’t come up in conversation very often? Besides, Sara, this whole thing is none of my business. So, you’re dating a criminal mastermind and dating said criminal mastermind got you tortured and almost killed, but, hey, that’s none of _my _business,” said Scott, shooting her a look.

“I walked into an ambush. It was my own fault,” said Sara.

Scott looked at her.

“Reyes had guards on me and everything. Believe me, this was my own fault,” said Sara.

“They tortured you to get information about _him_,” insisted Scott.

“But not because I was dating him. Don’t you get it? It was because of my work on the outpost and cleaning up Kadara. I was working with the Collective before I even knew who Reyes was and Sloane finally decided that I was too much of a problem for her and needed to be removed from the equation. Speaking of, what happened to my outpost?” asked Sara. She suddenly became very worried. “Wait, if I’m going back to the Nexus, then who’s going to take care of the outpost?”

“Relax, Sara. Apparently, you’d actually done everything you needed to do anyway. When your guy offed the competition, he and his buddies took over Kadara. All I had to do was make a call and now Initiative Outpost Ditaeon has a sprawling setup in the badlands. When you’re up to it, I can put you in contact with the new mayor,” said Scott.

“The outpost is established already?” said Sara with a mix of surprise and disappointment.

“Vidal was very adamant that you would want the job finished, especially since he was sending you back to the Nexus,” said Scott.

“He…what?” said Sara in shock.

“Asked me to take you back to the Nexus,” reiterated Scott.

“What?” gasped Sara in dismay.

“Take it up with him. I’m not getting involved,” said Scott.

“I don’t understand,” said Sara, mostly to herself.

“He thought it was safer for you on the Nexus, and I can’t say that I disagree,” said Scott.

“Sara, your injuries were and are severe. The Nexus has superior facilities and can take care of you better than anything on Kadara,” said Lexi.

Now that Lexi mentioned it, and as the adrenaline began to wear off, the pain began to seep back into Sara’s awareness. Everything hurt, even if the surgeons had fixed most of the bleeding and set her broken bones. No amount of medi-gel could fix some problems. And they had absolutely used a lot of medi-gel on Sara.

“Look, Sara, don’t worry about it. Just relax and focus on getting better,” said Scott as he touched her shoulder reassuringly.

It was the wrong thing to do.

Sara lurched away from his touch reflexively, which meant that her weight settled onto her broken arm. She bit back a cry of pain as Lexi began fussing and scanning her arm. No real damage had been done, but the bone pain was severe. Feeling it the best option under the circumstances, she administered a sedative and shooed Scott out of the med-bay. Sara needed to rest, and clearly that was not going to happen if she reinjured herself and her brother further traumatized her.

Lexi dropped down into her chair and regarded Sara tiredly. Of everyone on the _Tempest_ crew, Lexi had always liked Sara. Amidst all the strong personalities and mild panic, Sara always seemed to know what to do and the right thing to say. Where Scott was impulsive, emotional, and more casual, Sara faced tasks with a clinical level of logic and professionalism. Scott had improved as he grew into his role as Pathfinder, but Lexi had always related more to Sara. She had kept in contact with her while Sara had been on Kadara, but she had missed her friend. She had never thought to see Sara as her patient again, never mind like this.

It was difficult to see anyone on the _Tempest_ in rough shape, but it was even worse when the trauma was so complete. Most of the team always shrugged off their injuries, with even Scott more or less brushing off dying on the Archon’s ship. What had happened to Sara was even worse than Scott dying. No, Scott dying had been a controlled, planned action on the part of both SAM and Scott. But this? This senseless violence? This brought back memories of her childhood on Omega, of how Aria had been rumored to handle her enemies. She had hoped that such violence had been left in the Milky Way, but if Andromeda was teaching her anything, it was that greed and violence were universal. But so were justice and courage. If the _Tempest_ crew had shown her anything, it was that no matter the odds, no matter how difficult, there would always be someone willing to fight for what was right, just as long as they were stubborn enough. And the Ryder twins were two of the most stubborn people in the entire galaxy. 

Lexi took a deep breath and read over her scans again. Everything would be all right. If nothing else Harry would know what to do.

\---

Sara strode through Nexus operations like a woman on a mission, probably because she was one. After two straight weeks of being bedridden in the _Hyperion_ med-bay, she had finally been allowed to access her omni-tool, only to come face to face with an HNS reminder via Director Tann that Kadara was a dangerous place and that under no circumstances was anyone to interact with exiles. She hadn’t even bothered to check her other messages before bolting from the med-bay and heading right to operations. She was more or less healed, or at least that’s what Harry had said when he’d given her back her omni-tool. She wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous and was in no way cleared for field work, but she could at least leave the med-bay. Which she had. And immediately headed for Tann’s office.

Tann’s assistant yelled at her that the director was busy, but Sara ignored her. The three other Pathfinders all regarded her curiously as she hurried through the pathfinder office and up to Director Tann’s office. Contrary to what the assistant had said, he was not particularly busy, merely sitting there reading a report.

He looked up when she walked in. “Ah, the other Ryder. What can I do for you?”

“‘Stay away from Kadara and do not interact with exiles’? _Really_?” seethed Sara.

“A Nexus official and a member of the human pathfinder team was brutally attacked by Kadara’s leadership and left to die in a wasteland. If we did not have grounds before, we do now,” said Tann.

Sara braced her hands on the desk to glare at him. Her new scars only made the Alec Ryder glare more menacing. “I did not spend _months _on Kadara cleaning up the place and ousting Sloane Kelly only to have _you _ruin everything _just_ when we’ve managed to get an outpost up and running!”

“You of all people should understand why we must exercise caution on Kadara, given that _you _are the Nexus official who was brutally assaulted by Kadara’s leadership,” said Tann.

“Its _old _leadership. The Collective governs Kadara now and Sloane Kelly is dead. For Christ’s sake, they’re working with us to keep the outpost safe!” exclaimed Sara.

“The exiles rebelled against the Nexus. With all _due _respect, Ryder, you were not here for the riots and rebellions. _You _did not witness what happened. The exiles _left_ for a reason. They are criminals and they are a drain on our resources. I will not have their _corruption _spread to our people when tensions are already so high,” declared Tann.

“They’d be lower if you weren’t undermining every chance at colonization! It’s a viable option and I worked hard to get it that way,” argued Sara.

“And we thank you for your service. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to,” said Tann haughtily.

“How can you sit there and warn people away from Kadara when you have _no _idea what it’s actually like there? When, if ever, was the last time that you even left the Nexus? You’ve never seen Kadara, you don’t know the players there, and you’re too closed-minded to see the big picture here,” said Sara.

“Ryder, you’re clearly under a lot of stress from the attack. Why don’t you head back to the _Hyperion_ and leave me to my work?” said Tann dismissively.

With a groan of frustration, Sara left Tann’s office. It was adding insult to injury to declare Kadara borderline unsuitable the _second _they managed to get an outpost established. It felt like all of this had been for nothing, and she wasn’t taking it well.

Before Sara could properly explode or was called back to the med-bay for her elevated blood pressure, someone pinged her omni-tool. She answered it immediately and was surprised by the person on the other end.

“Ryder. We overheard what happened with Tann. Meet us in Kesh’s office,” said Addison.

Sara could only assume this was going to be another lecture, but went anyway, grumbling the whole way.

When she got there, Kesh and Addison were already there, both seeming to be in something of a mood.

“Ryder,” said Kesh.

“Before you lecture me, I did not spend months working to fix things on Kadara just for hazard warnings to be issued about the place the moment we established an outpost,” said Sara.

“No kidding,” said Kesh.

“Tann’s an ass, but that’s nothing new. The exiles _are _a problem, but not our biggest one at the moment. We _need _every outpost we have, and Kadara’s got the most viable climate,” said Addison.

“Not to mention an actual market with outside resources,” added Kesh.

“Which means that Tann’s ego is hindering colonization efforts. We need colonists for Kadara and the odd miner or reclaimed exile on probation isn’t the answer. Kesh and I were talking, and we think you can help with that,” said Addison.

“I suppose I could use my connections on Kadara,” began Sara.

Addison interrupted her. “We’re not talking about your black-market contacts, Ryder, and I’m sure you have those now. Regardless of whatever it is that you actually did on Kadara, the fact of the matter is that it’s safer than it’s ever been, and the Collective is protecting our people. Having a friendly trading post is invaluable. Like it or not, you’re the Initiative face of settling Kadara, and you’re a Ryder, and that means something. You may not be a Pathfinder, but you were on the human pathfinder team and people know that you established the outpost on Kadara. If we get you in front of a camera and you tell people that Kadara’s safe and that the exiles are not a problem, it will do a _lot _to calm people down and give them the push they need to settle there.”

“I’m not exactly a spokeswoman,” frowned Sara.

“Your father is one of the major reasons so many of us joined the Andromeda Initiative. He inspired people to believe in the dream. If half of everything your brother says about you is true, you’re every inch Alec’s daughter, and the only reason that Kadara is even remotely viable. The exiles are a problem, that much has not changed, but we’re not stupid. We need Kadara and those exiles are desperate for our resources. Our ledgers need Kadara more than anything,” said Addison.

“You’re stuck here anyway, so you might as well put that to good use. Get in front of a camera and tell everyone how great Kadara is, boast about what a hero you are, and everything will get back on track,” said Kesh.

“Just like that,” said Sara.

“And try not to piss off Tann unnecessarily,” said Addison.

\---

Sara returned to her room on the _Hyperion_ and finally got around to checking her messages. There was one from Lexi inquiring after her health, one from Vetra telling her that Prodromos was lovely this time of year, as was the truly sickening amount of blatant flirting between Scott and Cora, and another one from Scott telling her to ignore anything Vetra said. Keema had sent a paragraph detailing how things had improved and telling her to call when she felt better. Someone with the outrageous name Christmas Tate had sent her a full report on the establishment and running of Ditaeon, calling himself the mayor and informing her that quarters had been arranged for her assumed eventual return. Reyes’ message was by far the shortest.

_ Sara—_

_ Hope you’re feeling better. Call me when you can. _

_Miss you._

_ —Reyes _

Reyes answered almost immediately. “Sara, and here I thought you’d never call.”

His usual easy confidence would have fooled most people, but Sara heard the concern and relief underneath as clearly as the dull sound of music from Tartarus in the background of the call. “I imagined so, given that you shipped me back to the Nexus at the first opportunity.”

“Sara—” he began.

“You and Scott didn’t even consider my opinion or that I’d been working for months to set up that outpost, you just made the unilateral decision to send me back,” said Sara. It wasn’t accusatory, precisely, but rather more of a question. All annoyance drained from her as she sat on the edge of her bed and stared dismally at the blank wall across from her. “Were you that eager to get rid of me?”

“You nearly died, Sara,” said Reyes, the Charlatan’s mask of confidence falling away. He had anticipated this part of the conversation yet dreaded it all the same. “You nearly died. The whole reason I hadn’t told you what I was for so long was because I was terrified of this very thing happening, and then it happened anyway. Even with a shadow on you, Sloane still took you and still nearly killed you. If I couldn’t protect you under those circumstances, then how could I justify keeping you here? You needed medical attention, and better than I could provide on Kadara. You were going to be safer on the Nexus and your brother was here anyway. It made sense at the time.”

Sara didn’t feel like belaboring the point. “Fair enough, I suppose. The way everyone’s been fussing over me here, I can only assume your reaction was much worse.”

“You almost _died_,” said Reyes.

Sara flopped back down onto her bed. “Yeah, that’s not going down as one of my finer moments.”

Reyes sighed, either out of frustration or resignation, or perhaps a little of both. “Only you would have such a reaction to that.”

“I was taken because I walked into a blatant trap. It was my own fault and you and your guilty conscience better realize that. Besides, between Dad’s N7 ‘how to survive an interrogation’ notes and Alliance recon’s _actual _‘how to survive an interrogation’ training, I mostly just told the Outcasts to go fuck themselves over and over again.”

“I almost wish you _had _said something, if only to stop what they did to you,” said Reyes.

“You and I both know that they wouldn’t have believed me if I did and that they would have killed me if and when they got the information they wanted,” said Sara.

“That does not make me feel better, Sara,” said Reyes.

“You’re the people person, not me. I got my Dad’s shitty interpersonal skills, remember?” said Sara.

“How could I forget?” said Reyes, a slight smirk in his voice. He missed her.

“Well, you and I might know that, but no one gave the Nexus the memo. Do you know, Addison and Kesh have me giving some big interview for HNS about how great Kadara is and how despite the rampant exile problem, it’s really lovely this time of year?” said Sara.

Reyes laughed. “What’s next? Tourism advertisements? ‘Come visit Kadara, you might not get shot now’?”

“Pretty close, from the sound of things. Being a Ryder apparently makes my word worth something. Can’t wait to invent a reason for my scars. I’m thinking of either jumpjet accident or tried to use my biotics to get an assault rifle mod off the top shelf and that went horribly awry. On a not-unrelated note, how do you feel about facial scars? I hear the krogans love them, but no one ever said anything about human men,” said Sara.

“You are the most beautiful woman in Andromeda, and I still love you more than anything,” said Reyes. 

“Well, I mean, you’re a bit biased,” said Sara.

“Extremely,” agreed Reyes.

Sara stared up at the ceiling and missed him, wishing, not for the first time, that he was there with her. Or they were back on Kadara together. “So, how’s Ditaeon?”

“The outpost itself is going well. The Nexus made good on its promise to bring some exiles back on probation, and the Collective is making sure that the colonists don’t get themselves killed. Would have preferred you to _Christmas Tate_, though,” said Reyes, his distaste for the mayor apparent.

“Not a fan of the mayor?” said Sara.

“He’s not you, and that alone is cause enough for me not to like him, mi amor. You would think he was a provincial governor the way he struts around and barks orders,” said Reyes.

“Try and get along, please. I can lie about what happened to me or rightly claim that Sloane was responsible and that the Collective bravely avenged my honor, but if you shoot the mayor, it’ll be a bit more difficult to explain away,” said Sara.

“Who’s going to shoot him? But if a wild ahdi just _happened _to make its way into his quarters…” mused Reyes.

“No killing the mayor,” said Sara firmly.

Reyes sighed dramatically. “_Fine_, but only because you asked so nicely, mi amor.”

“With any luck, I’ll be cleared for duty sooner rather than later and I can relieve Mayor Tate of his responsibilities,” said Sara.

Reyes was quiet for a long moment before finally saying, “Do you really think the Nexus will allow you back here?”

“I am not living out the rest of my life on this wannabe Citadel, Reyes. I miss breathing non-recycled air, watching a real sunrise, and drinking stolen whiskey under the stars. And I miss you,” said Sara.

It took him painfully long to respond. “You almost died, Sara.”

“Because of my own recklessness, not because you weren’t sufficiently overprotective, Reyes. Besides, you got rid of Sloane and the Outcasts,” said Sara.

Reyes let out a long breath. “Sara…”

“Don’t ‘Sara’ me. What happened was my fault. _Mine_, not yours. Don’t you dare use this as an excuse to push me away,” said Sara.

“What happened was what I was most afraid of, Sara. It’s one of the reasons I was so reluctant to tell you about my involvement in the first place. Who’s to say that someone else won’t try again?” said Reyes.

“And who’s to say that the kett won’t attack, or the Scourge won’t come back with a vengeance, or some nut won’t cut the air supply to the _Hyperion_? I’ve been in danger since I woke up from cryo and statistically I was bound to have something happen to me eventually given the amount of danger I religiously put myself in. It’s more a miracle that I didn’t get frozen to death on Voeld or die of radiation poisoning on Eos. My point being, that I can take precautions against what happened, and I’d much rather do that than never see you again,” argued Sara, her eyes welling with tears.

Reyes knew a losing argument when he saw one. And it wasn’t as if distance was particularly working for him either. It was almost embarrassing how badly he missed having her around. “You hang in there and play the politician, and I’ll make sure that Kadara stays ours.”

\---

Sara adjusted uncomfortably in her chair and did her best to remain calm. She’d never had camera training in the Alliance and had no idea how this was supposed to work. When Addison and Kesh had called her into an empty apartment to do her interview, she hadn’t known what to expect. Then she’d been forced to change into the Initiative version of business casual, and they’d caked on enough makeup to completely cover up any scars she might have had. The overall effect, she suspected, was to make her seem as polished and Initiative-issued as physically possible. Sara found the bright lights shining in her eyes uncomfortable and cursed herself for agreeing to do this in the first place.

Davis Qar, who effectively _was _HNS, was set to lead the interview and was holding a datapad with a discouragingly long list of questions for Sara. After all, none of the human pathfinder crew had the time to be interviewed while on the Nexus, and Scott had barely made himself available for Keri’s documentary, so any information straight from a pathfinder team member was immediately headline news. Davis Qar had jumped at the chance to interview Sara when the opportunity had presented itself, and so now here he was in some empty apartment set to interview a woman who somehow managed to be twice as intimidating as Director Addison even while being nearly half her age. It didn’t help that both Addison and Kesh were hovering nearby.

Once everything was set, it was time for the interview. It was staged like a casual conversation, with both Davis and Sara sitting in chairs at the kitchen table with cups of coffee in front of them. Casual, cool, and confident: that was the plan. Addison and Kesh just hoped that Sara remembered that. They may have neglected to tell her that this was being broadcast live to all the Initiative outposts and the Nexus.

When it was time to start the interview, Davis turned to the camera. “I’m Davis Qar, and this is HNS. Today, we have an exclusive interview with Sara Ryder, former Alliance recon specialist, member of the human pathfinder team, the Initiative Liaison to Kadara, and twin sister of the human Pathfinder, Scott Ryder.” He turned to face Sara. “How are you today, Ryder?”

“Fine, thank you,” said Sara. She tried to remain calm. She had faced worse than this. It was just an interview. She could survive this. If she could survive what the Outcasts had done, she could survive this interview.

“Glad to hear it. So, Ryder, before being assigned to Kadara, you were on the human pathfinder team. You must have explored most of Heleus, then.”

“A fair amount of it. I was still coming out of cryo when everyone went to Habitat-7, but I was there for Eos, Aya, Havarl, Voeld, and Kadara. The only one I missed was Elaaden, really, which is a shame because I’ve always enjoyed warm weather,” said Sara.

“Not many people have seen that much of Heleus. Which was your favorite?” asked Davis.

“Oh jeez, that’s a tough one,” said Sara. It was not tough. She hated deserts and the cold, the enormous bugs on Havarl had freaked her out, and while Aya was beautiful, she hadn’t gotten to see much beyond the docking bay. “I know Scott’s favorite was Eos, if only because Prodromos was his first outpost and he’s very proud of that. He claims that sitting under the stars and having a beer by the lake is the most relaxed he’s been since coming to Andromeda. Let’s see, Aya was beautiful with the waterfalls and the volcanos, it reminded me a bit of Hawaii back on Earth. Havarl was also gorgeous, with all its lush plants and ancient buildings. There was a lot of history on Aya and Havarl and it was fascinating to learn so much about angaran culture. Voeld too had a lot of history, but the aurora at night there was just outstanding. Although out of everywhere I’ve been, I have to say that Kadara is my favorite, as cheesy as that sounds. The mountains, the lakes, the nightlife—it really is something else. The view of the wilderness from the port is just breathtaking, especially at sunset when the light hits the mountains just right.”

“Kadara, really? Not Aya or Havarl? Not Eos?” said Davis.

“There are a lot of places out there that are beautiful to visit, but Kadara isn’t a tourist destination, it’s a place to live. Kadara, simply put, is a home. Personally, I’d rather live in a port city with a mountain view than Prodromos, but that’s also just personal preference,” said Sara.

“While I have you on the subject, I feel we should address the proverbial elephant in the room: the exiles on Kadara. When the Pathinder and his team arrived, Kadara was a cesspool of violence and crime with a civil war raging between enemy factions of exiles. Does the scenery really make up for all that?” asked Davis.

“Look, the first thing you have to realize about the exiles is that they are people, just like you and me. We all came from the Milky Way with the same dream of exploring a new galaxy and starting over for a better life. We can argue blame and culpability all we want, but the fact of the matter is, the Nexus failed these people and we continue to fail them by distancing ourselves from the reality that we’re in and by pretending that they are something other than us. The exiles are people just like you and me. They have needs and wants and dreams, they enjoy a good sunset and a strong drink just like everyone here on the Nexus, and they are citizens of Heleus just like us. Not everyone who left the Nexus after the uprising was a violent criminal bent on destroying the Initiative and remaining so stubbornly at odds benefits no one. Frankly, there aren’t enough of us that we can afford not to at least entertain the idea of working together. That’s why I was so adamant that we allow those who want to return to rejoin the Initiative after a probation period. They’re just people who happened to disagree with us in a time of great stress. It’s time that someone takes the high road and accepts that,” explained Sara.

Addison pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

“As idealistic as that sounds, you must admit that there _are _criminals among the exiles,” said Davis. “You yourself were recently attacked, prompting Director Tann to issue a travel notice to Kadara.”

“Sloane Kelly and a number of the original security staff on the Nexus had originally established control of Kadara Port and were ruling the place with an iron fist. I won’t sugarcoat that. Life there was brutal under her rule. She hoarded resources, beat and exiled people for not paying protection fees—she was a tyrant, plain and simple. The Collective, who rules there now, sought to change that. They are a joint force of Milky Way exiles and angara who saw the problems the Outcasts created and wanted to change things for the better. They even ran soup kitchens and medical clinics in the wards. I won’t pretend that they were perfect, but they sure are a hell of a lot better than the Outcasts. Sloane Kelly tried to have me taken out because I had begun diplomatic negotiations with the Collective to establish an outpost once she and the Outcasts were removed. Obviously, she didn’t succeed. The Collective is now in control of the port, Ditaeon is under their protection, and the Outcasts are no longer an issue. Peace and order have largely asserted themselves on Kadara,” said Sara.

“But you have to admit that things on Kadara aren’t quite as peaceful as you paint them to be,” said Davis.

“I don’t know how much clearer I can say it than the violent crazy people who were in charge are no longer in charge. They’re dead. They’re done. The sane people who opposed them are now in charge and they want Ditaeon to succeed as much as we do. It’s a mutually beneficial situation. Even with the activated vaults, Kadara remains the most viable climate we have, its strategically important, and it has an established economic center. We need Kadara, Kadara needs us, and the sooner everyone stops being stubborn about it, the better,” said Sara. She was rapidly losing her patience with this line of questioning.

“So, then what would you say to the skeptics who say that Kadara is a lawless land, the wild west of Andromeda?” asked Davis.

“I’m actually going to have to stand by my brother on this, even though I’ll never live it down. If you’re looking for a quaint beach vacation, Kadara isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for an untamed wilderness, adventure, good drinks in a nice bar, and aren’t afraid of a challenge, then give Kadara a chance. My father always said that nothing worth doing was ever easy, and I strongly believe that Kadara is worth it,” said Sara.

“Well, Kadara and Ditaeon have certainly found a champion in you, Ryder,” said Davis. He turned his attention. “This has been Davis Qar with Sara Ryder, signing off for HNS.”

As the camera turned off, Addison said, “Tann is going to have a field day.”

“I don’t know, I’d say she made a pretty good pitch. Nice weather, no more criminals, and go there if you want a challenge,” said Kesh.

Addison shook her head and left the room.

Davis looked at Sara. “It was broadcast live, so I’m sure you’ll see the response soon.”

“It…what?” said Sara in shock.

“We didn’t want to make you more nervous, so we didn’t tell you. It didn’t go as badly as Addison makes it seem. You didn’t sugarcoat it or condemn the exiles, but Tann would be pissed even if you did. Worry more about that lakeside property that might not be there by the time you get back,” said Kesh.

“I’ve got a guy on it already,” said Sara.

“Good. With any luck, you’ll need his help,” said Kesh.


	11. Distractions

“No, you can’t kill the mayor,” said Sara.

“What if he stumbles into an ahdi den by accident?” suggested Reyes.

“Still no,” said Sara with sigh as she leaned back in the chair at the desk in the Pathfinder’s quarters on the _Hyperion_. Scott had given her free reign over the place while he was gone, and while Sara refused to sleep in a bed that wasn’t hers (or Reyes’s), she wasn’t complaining about the private kitchen or terminal, particularly as the latter meant that she could have a real vidcall with people whenever she wanted.

“Mining accident? A long walk off a short cliff?” said Reyes hopefully.

“Again, no,” said Sara. “You can’t just kill everyone who disagrees with you, no matter how ridiculous their name.”

“What if, and hear me out,” began Reyes.

“You can’t kill the mayor, Reyes,” said Sara firmly.

“He’s _terrible_, mi amor,” insisted Reyes. “Umi even said just yesterday that she missed having you here instead of this new guy. Do you know how bad things have to be for _Umi_ to admit she misses someone?”

“I have not done public interviews behind Tann’s back and sucked up to Nexus command just to have Kadara’s viability tossed out because you don’t like the mayor,” said Sara.

“You could always do more interviews _about _how bad the mayor was and how you’ve resolved the situation by getting rid of him. I’ll even let you take credit,” said Reyes hopefully.

“No one said you had to _like_ him, Reyes, but you do have to tolerate each other for a little while. I can bully him into being nice if need be. Having a woman half his age threaten to come back and do his job better than he can should do the trick,” said Sara.

“And when it doesn’t, I may just forget to warn him about the adhi den,” said Reyes.

Sara rolled her eyes dramatically just as the door to the Pathfinder’s quarters slid open and Scott walked on, a man on a mission.

“Have you ever heard of pinging a door?” exclaimed Sara as she whirled around.

Scott ignored her as he threw down his jacket angrily on the sofa nearby. “You would not _believe _the meeting I just had.”

“I’m in the middle of a vidcall,” said Sara as she gestured wildly to the screen that depicted Reyes lounging in his usual room in Tartarus.

“Your boyfriend can wait, Meridian, on the other hand, can_not_!” exclaimed Scott.

Sara did not know all the details about Scott’s ongoing hunt for Meridian. She knew that they’d managed to get some details from the Archon’s ship and that Suvi and SAM had been working on finding a location, but anything beyond that wasn’t considered need to know for her anymore.

“We found the damn place. We know where it is. The key to saving Heleus and fixing the vaults is _right there _but do you think Tann will lift a finger to help? _Of course not_. No, it’s too _risky_, apparently. Sure, the kett are probably already there sowing the seeds of our destruction, but it’s too _risky_ for Tann to send reinforcements with me to go and I’m not allowed to go alone. Can you believe that?! I’ve been grounded! Grounded! Me!” fumed Scott as he paced back and forth.

“Well, shit. What’s the timeline? Do we _know_ that the kett are there already?” asked Sara.

“Does it matter? I’ve been grounded and it’s not as if the _Tempest _could get in and bypass half the kett forces anyway, even if my ground team would be capable of infiltrating the place,” said Scott.

“Even with the stealth drive?” asked Sara.

Scott stopped pacing and stared at her.

“Did you forget that your ship had a stealth drive?” asked Sara dully.

Scott looked at her for another shocked moment before shaking his head. “The _Tempest _still can’t go in alone and we’re still grounded anyway.”

“Then convince someone to help you and go anyway,” said Sara.

“I can’t just…go against direct orders from Tann,” said Scott. “I’m stunned you would even suggest such a thing, Little Miss Rules and Regulations. You gave me a hard time about hooking up with Cora because it would break frat regs, but suddenly it’s okay to disobey direct orders?”

Sara gestured to the screen behind her. “Do you see who I’m dating? I helped organize a military coup of a pirate overlord on a planet inhabited largely by criminals and I am dating a smuggler who is also now the shadowy Pirate King of Kadara and you think I give a rat’s ass about what Tann’s opinion is? Besides that, how many atrocities are committed by good people following bad orders? If the first human Spectre had followed orders and stayed grounded on the Citadel like her orders said, the geth and that rogue Spectre would have killed everyone on the Citadel. But she didn’t. She knew that some things were just more important than obeying orders and they committed mutiny and saved the Citadel instead. Sometimes what the regulations say is right and what actually _is _right are two different things, so you just have to decide which is more important here.”

“Pulling the Commander Shepard card is low, and you know it. You can’t just say ‘humanity’s greatest hero did it so you should too’,” said Scott.

Sara glared at him. “If the difference between our continued survival and the end of the world is you breaking a few rules, Scott, you need to break a few rules and you know it.”

Scott ran a hand through his hair and resumed his pacing. “I don’t even know how I’d go about doing it, though. Even if I managed to sneak the _Tempest _out, the stealth drive is good, but not that good. We’d need some sort of distraction.”

As if summoned by his thoughts alone, Scott’s omni-tool pinged an incoming call. “Pathfinder Ryder? This is Pathfinder Reaka. We’ve heard about your problem with upper management. Meet us in the tech lab when you can.”

“I think your distraction just called,” said Sara.

“Hopefully. Come on, let’s go,” said Scott.

“Pardon?” asked Sara, certain she had heard him wrong. She’d been relegated to Kadara duty for so long, it felt like a different lifetime that she’d been on the actual pathfinder team.

“I have a feeling I’m going to need help sneak the _Tempest _out, and you’re good at being distracting. Now come on. You can chat with your pirate king later,” said Scott impatiently.

Sara rolled her eyes and briefly directed her attention to the vidscreen where Reyes had been patiently watching the Ryder twins squabble. “Sorry about this. I’ll talk to you later.”

“I’m here when you need me,” said Reyes.

After signing off, Sara followed Scott out of the Pathfinder’s quarters and headed for the tram terminal on the _Hyperion_. Despite his earlier agitation, Scott now seemed to be almost overflowing with anticipation. “This is what Commander Shepard must have felt like when going to meet Captain Anderson on the Citadel when the _Normandy_ was grounded. A hero with everything on the line and nothing left to lose, ready to go rogue and save the galaxy.”

“You are way too excited about this,” said Sara, shaking her head. She knew her brother had been completely in awe of the late first human Spectre, but this was really something else. Honestly, if anyone was going to be obsessed with the woman, it really should have been her, what with the biotics and all. It just never seemed useful to compare herself to other people, particularly when her Alliance career was well and truly over before it even really began. Scott always seemed to be comparing himself to other people, from his long list of Alliance heroes to their father. It didn’t seem healthy to her.

If anyone thought it notable that the Ryder twins were heading to the tech lab in the middle of the day, they didn’t show it. Nobody seemed to pay them any mind as they headed through the Nexus and found their way to the science wing. When they arrived, they found the other three pathfinders and Dr. Aridana already waiting for them.

“Ryders, welcome. We heard about Director Tann’s decision,” said Raeka, the salarian pathfinder.

“Simply put, it’s bullshit. We need Meridian and it’s worth whatever risk it takes to get you there,” said Avitus, the turian pathfinder.

Valeria, the newly minted asari pathfinder, didn’t say anything.

“Which is where we come in,” said Dr. Aridana. She pulled up a schematic on the holoscreen in the center of the lab. “The _Tempest_’s stealth drive should allow it to move through kett space largely undetected, but it would be foolish to rely on that. You need a distraction so that the _Tempest _can fly under the kett’s radar and reach Meridian before they have the chance to stop you. We have developed a new technology based on found remtech that will confuse the kett’s sensors with fake targets. We call it Ghost Storm. If you integrate it into the _Tempest_’s systems, it should provide you the edge you need to get to Meridian.”

“Well, that’s convenient,” said Scott.

“You get in there and you get Meridian. Whatever you need, Ryder, we’ve got your back,” said Avitus.

“The Ghost Storm will work on the kett. The science is sound. What you need to worry about is closer to home. With the _Tempest _grounded, you’ll need a distraction to give you a window for escape,” said Raeka.

“Multiple distractions. You need someone in flight control to clear the _Tempest _for undocking and takeoff procedures, someone making a big enough fuss in the docking area that nobody notices the _Tempest _leaving, and you need someone to distract Tann so that when someone does notice that the _Tempest _is leaving, he doesn’t do anything to stop it,” said Sara.

“Leave flight control to me. Being a Spectre had its perks back in the Milky Way, and one of those was access to Citadel flight control. I’ll handle it,” said Avitus.

“Valeria and I can distract Director Tann and his assistant,” said Raeka.

“Scott, what ever happened with Addison’s assistant? That weasel who had it out for the krogan?” asked Sara.

“Never had enough evidence to pin on the guy, only his exile associate, so he’s still here. Why?” asked Scott.

“Well, I’d say publicly accusing the Assistant Director of Colonial Affairs of being an exile sympathizer, raging anti-krogan racist, and general piece of shit in the middle of the docking bay would be distracting,” said Sara.

“Get Kesh in on it, but don’t tell her the reason, and you’ll be golden,” said Avitus.

“All right. If we’re set, then let’s get started. SAM estimates that Ghost Storm should take four hours to fully integrate into the _Tempest_’s systems, so in four hours, we’ll put our plan into motion. Does that work for everyone?” said Scott.

“We stand with you, Ryder, to Meridian and beyond,” confirmed Raeka.

The other pathfinders nodded their agreement.

“Good. Then let’s get to work. The future of the cluster is depending on us,” said Scott.

\---

Four hours and some unauthorized breaking and entering later, and Sara was ready to cause a scene. She’d meant to only bring Kesh, but had run into Kandros on the way, which rapidly devolved into a lengthy venting session that almost made her late, but in the end would work to her benefit. After complaining to them about Spender and presenting them with her ill-gotten evidence, they had both readily agreed to confront the creep. So, yes, Sara had broken into Spender’s apartment to get the dirt on him. But could that really be considered a crime when the guy was keeping video diaries of his crimes? Honestly, she’d met murderers and smugglers on Kadara with more tact.

And so it was that Sara found her way to the docks with both Kesh and Kandros ready to cause a massive scene. Of course, the other two didn’t think they were really there to cause a scene, they thought they were just there to apprehend a criminal. Sara and the pathfinders, however, had other plans.

Spender was chewing out a scared asari when they arrived, already practically causing a scene on his own just laying into the poor girl for having the audacity to touch a box designated for hydroponics that he was trying to repurpose.

“William Spender, have you not already caused enough trouble that you’re picking on workers for doing their jobs?” demanded Sara grandly.

A number of people openly stopped to stare, sensing the impending fireworks.

Spender stopped bothering the asari to turn around properly address the three newcomers. Kandros and Kesh were intimidating on a good day, but somehow, it was the human biotic standing between them that seemed the most dangerous at the moment. Not that Spender particularly cared about this, of course. He wasn’t easily intimidated by a girl five years younger and five inches shorter than him.

“Another Ryder. Don’t you people have better things to do? Like establish outposts? Oh, my mistake, that’s your brother. You just get attacked by exiles, right?” sneered Spender.

Normally, Sara would brush this off and get straight to the point. She valued directness, after all. But this was not a normal situation, and she needed to cause a scene.

“How _dare _you! Not only was I with Scott when he stablished those first two outposts on Eos and Voeld, but I am the only reason we have an outpost on Kadara right now! I might not have the title, but I am _not _just some criminal’s punching bag!” ranted Sara loudly.

More people were staring. Kandros felt this was a little too dramatic for his liking. Kesh was waiting for the opportunity to headbutt Spender into the next cluster.

“Yeah, _whatever_, Ryder. You _sort of_ established an outpost when your brother was the one who actually founded Ditaeon, but whatever helps you sleep at night. Congratulations. I stopped the uprising on the Nexus, but you don’t hear _me _having to justify it,” said Spender.

“Really? I could have sworn it was the krogan who stopped the uprising. Kesh, wasn’t it really the krogan who stopped the uprising?” said Sara.

“It was,” confirmed Kesh. “Because this pyjack promised us a seat on the council, only to deny any knowledge of it once we’d stamped out the uprising.”

“Not very sporting of you, Spender. That’s downright traitorous. But then again, you really just have it out for the krogan, don’t you? At least, that’s what your video diaries say,” said Sara as she pulled up the soundbites on her omni-tool.

People stared in shock as the docking bay will filled with the sound of Spender’s rants about the filthy krogan and how he deserved a medal for getting them off the Nexus. Kesh looked murderous. Kandros was waiting for the actual charge so he could arrest this snake.

Spender was trying to think of a way out of this. He decided to turn the tables on Ryder. “You broke into my apartment! That’s illegal! You’ve been spending too much time with those exiles on Kadara! I bet you went native! You have no respect for our rules and regulations!” accused Spender.

Most of the charges were, of course, largely accurate, but Sara wasn’t about to admit to that. Instead, she pulled her trump card. “That’s rich coming from someone who bought a power scrambler from exiles and has been secretly supplying exiles in return for keeping pressure on the krogan.”

Some of the onlookers gasped. Everyone knew that scramblers were illegal.

“What do you have to say for yourself, Spender?” asked Kandros coolly.

“Unfounded accusations,” spat Spender.

Sara held up the scrambler. “Really? Then explain this. And the long list of messages between you and some scumbag named Aroane about undermining New Tuchanka in exchange for Nexus supplies.”

Spender looked between the scrambler and Sara and came to the horrible realization that he’d lost this particular battle. He leveled a glare at her. “Fine, yes, I did. The krogan are a menace and we should have left them back in the Milky Way to die off like the genophage intended. Hate me for that if you and the rest of the krogan-sympathizers want to, but I can see this for what it is. You don’t care about the krogan or the payments, you’re just playing politics like I am. So, I played both sides. Who hasn’t? I bet you are too. You telling me you don’t have contacts within the exiles?”

“Then you confess?” asked Sara.

“Fine, yes, I confess that I am the victim of political machinations and you just play the game better than I do,” spat Spender.

“Good enough for me,” said Kandros as he moved to arrest Spender. He resisted, but Kandros roughly put him in handcuffs. “What do you want to do with him, Ryder? Exile or imprisonment?”

“Imprisonment is too good for him. Exile him to Elaaden. Let the krogan have him,” said Sara.

“Morda will love that,” said Kesh.

“You bitch! You won’t get away with this!” exclaimed Spender as Kandros led him away.

“Already have,” said Sara.

“I’ll let Morda know to expect a visitor,” said Kesh. She looked at Sara. “And nice job distracting us from the _Tempest _leaving. I hope you and your brother know what you’re doing, Ryder, because we won’t survive an all our war with the kett. As it is, Tann’s not going to let this slide.”

\---

“You would not _believe _the day I’ve had!” exclaimed Sara as she collapsed into her chair in the _Hyperion_’s Pathfinder quarters.

“That bad?” asked Reyes in amusement. “Did the Pathfinder not get his trip to Meridian like he wanted?”

“Oh, no, he got there and fought the kett, saved the day, and found out that the situation is more complicated than we thought, as he does. The other pathfinders and I distracted the powers that be while he made his getaway on the _Tempest_. Problem is, the others are pathfinders, so they just got a slap on the wrist for enabling. But I got kicked off the Nexus!” said Sara.

“You got exiled?” said Reyes in surprise.

Sara snorted. “Don’t sound so excited. Not exiled, no, just confined to the _Hyperion_ until further notice. Apparently, I can’t cause trouble if I only see the inside of my room and the Pathfinder’s quarters.”

“He must not know you very well if he thinks that can stop you,” said Reyes.

“What Tann doesn’t know won’t hurt him. He’s just mad that we undermined his authority and ended up being right. Besides, my distraction had the added benefit of getting rid of a weasel who’s been double dealing with the Nexus and exiles on Elaaden. He’s the reason the krogan left the Nexus. Real piece of work,” said Sara.

“Should we be expecting this new addition to our community to arrive soon?” asked Reyes.

“I spared you the headache. He’s being handed over on a silver platter to the krogan of New Tuchanka,” said Sara.

“Well played,” said Reyes approvingly.

“What can I say? I learned from the best,” said Sara.

“And you were a pleasure to have in class, as promised,” said Reyes with a charming smile.

Sara couldn’t help but smile, even though her heart hurt. As nice as her accommodations on the _Hyperion _were, and as much as she had been resentful of being on Kadara in the first place, she missed being there. She missed her apartment with its window overlooking the badlands, she missed the watching the sunset from Kralla’s, and she missed driving around through the mountains in her rover. But more than any of those things, she missed the colorful cast of characters on Kadara and the friends she’d made while there. Chiefly among them, of course, was Reyes. Vidcalls helped, but it was no replacement for the real thing. Her injuries were almost completely healed, and yet there had been no word about sending her back to Kadara. She was beginning to wonder if she’d ever get back. 


End file.
